Harris in Texas for border visit amid Republican criticism
By Nandita Bose
EL PASO, Texas, June 25 (Reuters) - Vice President Kamala Harris landed in Texas on Friday to meet migrants and visit a border patrol facility on the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to counter claims from Republicans that she has been too slow to visit the region as part of her role in addressing the root causes of immigration.
The trip, Harris' first visit to the border since becoming vice president five months ago, was announced on Wednesday and appeared to have been hastily put together days before a visit to the border by former President Donald Trump.
"I said back in March I was going to come to the border, so this is not a new plan," Harris told reporters shortly after landing. "Coming to the border ... is about looking at the effects of what we have seen happening in Central America."
White House officials, who for months have said Harris' efforts to stem immigration from Central America are focused on diplomacy and are distinct from the security issues at the border, struck a different tone ahead of the trip.
"The vice president's trip to Guatemala and Mexico earlier this year was about the root causes, and this border visit is about the effects," Harris' spokesperson, Symone Sanders, told reporters on Thursday. "Both trips will inform the administration's root causes strategy."
Harris, who visited the border as a senator and attorney general from California, was assailed by Republicans when she visited Mexico and Guatemala this month as part of her efforts to lower migration from the region into the United States.
During that trip, Harris said she would visit the border in the near future but was focused on "tangible results" and "opposed to grand gestures."
A White House official said Harris's schedule is not dictated by what Trump does. "I can assure you we don't take our cues from the former president," the official said.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank, said many Republicans have embraced Trump's hardline immigration policies as they gear up for U.S. congressional elections in 2022.
As such, they are unlikely to stop their criticism of Biden's policies, even if Harris visits the border.
"They believe that is something that can win them seats in 2022, so of course they're going to play it up," she said. "They're going to try to make it an issue."
Harris was accompanied in El Paso by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee Dick Durbin and Democratic Representative from Texas Veronica Escobar. (Reporting by Nandita Bose and Ted Hesson, additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Kieran Murray and Alistair Bell)
