US Vice President Kamala Harris has been examined on her inability to see the country’s southern border with Mexico, despite being in charge of immigration policy. US Vice President Kamala Harris was grilled on her failure to visit the country’s southern border. Her answer only led to more criticism.
Today Ms. Harris was in Mexico for the second stop on her first overseas tour as Vice President, having previously visited Guatemala. The trip aimed to discuss the factors leading undocumented migrants to travel north to the United States. Immigration had quickly become a problem for the Biden administration due to a surge in unaccompanied minors arriving at the border, which caused overcrowding in the facilities holding them. President Joe Biden put Ms. Harris in charge of the issue in March, calling her the “most qualified person” to lead a dialogue between the US and Central American nations.
Republicans and many US media outlets have described the situation at the border as a “crisis”. Politicians on both sides, though primarily Republicans, have criticized Ms. Harris for not visiting the wall to see what is happening first-hand. That criticism came up during an interview the Vice President gave to NBC host Lester Holt, aired today. “The question that has come up – and you heard it here, and you’ll hear it again, I’m sure – is why not visit the border? Why not see what Americans are seeing in this crisis?” Holt asked.
Well, we are going to the border,” Ms. Harris said.
“We have to deal with what’s happening at the border; there’s no question about that. That’s not a debatable point. But we have to understand that there’s a reason people are arriving at our border and ask what that reason is. And then identify the problem so we can fix it.
The conversation moved on to other subjects for several minutes before Holt returned to the border issue.
Just to quickly put a button (on it), do you have any plans to visit the border?” he pressed.
At some point,” Ms. Harris replied, throwing up her hands.
“We are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So this whole thing about the border – we’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
You haven’t been to the border,” Holt said.
And I haven’t been to Europe,” she responded, laughing.
“I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.” Well, I mention it because I know. Certainly, Republicans have come after you on this. But Democratic Congressman (Henry) Cuellar has a border district. (He’s) said to you and the President, ‘Come, you need to see this,’” Holt explained. Mr. Cuellar, representing a congressional district in Texas, has urged Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris to visit the border.
Listen, I care about what’s happening at the border,” Ms. Harris told Holt.
“I’m in Guatemala because I focus on dealing with the root causes of migration. Some may think that is unimportant, but I firmly believe that if we care about what is happening at the border, we’d better care about the root causes and address them.
