Vice President Kamala Harris will finally visit the United States-Mexico border this week, three months after being put in charge of the immigration crisis, and days after Republicans urged President Joe Biden to relieve Harris of her duties and replace her with a new border czar.
Politico reports that Harris “will make a stop in El Paso, Texas on Friday, according to sources familiar with the trip. She is expected to be accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.”
Harris’s office and the Department of Homeland Security both refused to confirm details of the Vice President’s planned visit.
It appears that Harris was trying to beat former President Donald Trump to the border. Trump is scheduled to pay a visit to the border in Texas and speak with Governor Greg Abbott about his plans to build his own border barrier and send reinforcements to the Texas border with Mexico, a plan that Abbott announced last week.
“Harris’ trip comes just days before former President Donald Trump is set to visit the border,” Politico noted. “Trump will be joined on that trip by Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and a group of House Republicans.”
Harris was placed in charge of the Biden administration’s border crisis back in February, after a sudden, major spike in illegal alien apprehensions at the border. She has repeatedly said, however, that she is not in charge of the border itself — she claimed that DHS Secretary Mayorkas is tasked with handling the issue of illegal immigration — but that she was tasked with solving “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
As the Daily Wire previously reported, the crisis on the southern border has worsened dramatically since President Joe Biden took office. Illegal immigration has exploded to record levels, up more than 600% from last year.
Harris made a trip to the Northern Triangle countries earlier this month — a visit that was widely panned by critics, and widely viewed as unsuccessful by both American and Latin American legislators. Harris, notably, got visibly agitated whenever she was questioned over whether she planned to visit the United States-Mexico border, at one point cutting off a Univision reporter who questioned whether a border visit was on Harris’ agenda.
This is an excerpt from The Daily Wire.Â
