U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with immigrant girls from Central America and visited a port of entry where asylum seekers arrive in El Paso, Texas on Friday, with the goal of countering Republican claims that it has been slow. Too much in visiting the area as part of your role in addressing the root causes of immigration.
Harris’s first stop in El Paso was a Border Patrol immigration detention center, where he spoke with workers and later met privately with “five girls, ages 9 to 16, from Central America,” his office reported. “(The girls) drew pictures for her and told the vice president what they wanted to be when they grow up,” the White House added.
This is Harris’s first visit to the border since she became vice president five months ago.
Harris then headed for the Paso del Norte Port of Entry (PDN), a stop that was not planned on the itinerary initially announced by the White House.
There, the vice president planned “to visit an area where asylum seekers’ requests are reviewed as they arrive from Mexico, observe a secondary processing area for migrants, and inspect” an area where vehicles crossing the border are searched. looking for “illegal goods or activities,” his office said.
Thousands of people cross the port of entry visited by Harris every day, one of the busiest in the country and located on the Paso del Norte international bridge, which connects the Texas city with the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez.
His trip to El Paso, Texas, was announced Wednesday and appeared to have been hastily arranged days before former President Donald Trump visits the border.
White House officials, who for months have said Harris’s efforts to stop immigration from Central America focus on diplomacy and differ from border security issues, set a different tone Thursday.
“The vice president’s trip to Guatemala and Mexico earlier in the year addressed root causes, and this visit to the border is about effects,” said Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders. “Both trips will inform the administration’s root cause strategy.”
In statements to the press upon arriving in El Paso, Harris said that his visit to Mexico and Guatemala was focused on “addressing the causes” that generate irregular migration, while his trip to the border aims to “observe the effects of what we have seen happening in Central America. “
“The reality is that we have to deal with the causes and we have to deal with the effects,” he added.
When the visit is over, Harris will meet with activists, lawyers and various NGOs that help immigrants, Sanders said during a telephone press conference.
Also, at the end of the trip, the vice president will appear before the press together with the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as Senator Dick Durbin and legislator Veronica Escobar, two of the most active Democrats in Congress on migration issues.
Harris, who visited the US-Mexico border as a California senator and attorney general, came under fire from Republicans when she visited Mexico and Guatemala this month as part of her efforts to reduce emigration from the region to the United States.
The vice president’s visit to El Paso comes a few days before former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) also travels to the border with Mexico accompanied by the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, and Republican legislators, on June 30. .
A White House official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters there was no change in strategy. “She has always said that she would visit the border, but it was more like ‘when the time is appropriate,'” the official said.
The official said Harris’s schedule is not dictated by what Trump does. “I can assure you that we did not follow the example of the former president,” he declared.
With information from EFE and Reuters
