Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border Friday since President Joe Biden put her in charge of the border situation and amid increasing GOP pressure.
According to ABC News, Harris will visit a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Central Processing Center in El Paso, TX. She will also meet with migrants, nonprofit organizations, immigration attorneys and hold a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Harris will be joined by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) who represent the El Paso area.
Democrats and Republicans have been pressuring the Biden Administration to visit the border. The calls for Harris to visit the border grew after she visited Guatemala and Mexico but bypassed the border. Rather than find a better way to manage the border, the Biden Administration wants to determine the root causes of migration
Even when this trip was announced, many wondered why Harris chose to visit El Paso as opposed to the Rio Grande Valley, where there is a higher flow of migrants crossing and an overcrowded CBP facility.
Harris’ spokeswoman Symone Sanders defended Harris’ position.
“El Paso being the birthplace of the previous administration’s family separation policy,” Sanders said according to NBC News. “It is an important part of the story here, and one that you can expect we will continue to tell tomorrow on the ground.”
Sanders added the trip isn’t about playing politics, but “really about building on the work that she has been doing. This is not happening in a vacuum and it is not just to go and see.”