Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the southern border on Friday, the administration confirmed Wednesday, following months of Republicans’ criticism over the Biden administration’s handling of a large increase in families and unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America.
The trip is sure to be politically fraught. Harris, who is in charge of diplomatic efforts with Central American leaders, has resisted going to the U.S.-Mexico border. The conditions there are not part of the task that President Biden assigned her in March.
Yet Republicans have called her the “border czar,” hoping to make Harris the face of the issue. Harris said earlier this month, while on a trip to Guatemala and Mexico, that she would go to the border soon. On Friday, she is to accompany Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to El Paso.
Harris’ spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, said in a statement that the visit was part of Harris’ “ongoing work” in addressing “the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.”
Times staff writer Eli Stokols contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
