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On the US-Mexico border, Harris deplores “rhetoric” about immigration News from the US and Canada

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday used his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office to end political “rhetoric” and demand “fingerprints” on immigration, a topic Republicans have been eager to arm against.

Immigration “cannot be reduced to a political problem,” Harris told reporters. “We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we’re talking about suffering. And our vision needs to be thoughtful and effective. “

Under pressure to increase the influx of immigrants from Central America, U.S. President Joe Biden appointed Harris in March to direct his administration’s efforts to address the challenge of migrating to Mexico’s border.

Harris’s trip was left unchallenged by Republicans and some of his party for its absence and borderline by President Biden, who recorded a record number of encounters with migrant officials trying to cross into the U.S..

The half-day stoppage – which he visited at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center where he gathered migrant children, visited a border entry center and held a roundtable discussion with local service providers – is unlikely to miss the GOP’s efforts to use the anti-immigration administration’s political stick as.

Harris defended both the time of the visit and the choice to stop at El Paso. Some critics said the location is too far from the epicenter of border crossings, creating a strain on federal resources. After landing in El Pason, he told reporters in March that he would come to the border and that it was not a “new plan.”

Child segregation policy

And he said the choice of El Paso meant that the Biden administration wanted to emphasize a shift toward a more humane approach to immigration policy, following former President Donald Trump’s tough stance.

“Here in El Paso was presented the child administration policy of the previous administration,” he said. He also noted Trump’s “continue in Mexico” policy, which has forced asylum seekers to wait on the other side of the border to resolve their claims.

“We have seen the catastrophe caused by this here in El Paso,” he said.

Harris visited the region with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, a prominent Democratic voice on immigration reform.

Mayorkas and Escobar said they specifically invited Harris to the area, and Mayorkas quickly said border security is in his wallet, not that of the vice president.

Republicans blamed Harris for canceling more than one photo shoot. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Conservative Republican and a major critic of immigration administration, denounced Biden’s policies as “opening the door to human smugglers and drug cartels.”

While Cruz said he was happy to be visited by Harris, “the vice president came to Texas without a specific plan to secure our border and is unwilling to reverse the immigration policies of his administration’s failed bankruptcy, then his visit is praised. Photo-op.” .

Indifferent to border security

Trump said in an interview with conservative news outlet Newsmax on Friday: “I think it needs to go to the real part of the border, not the part of the border that is rarely violated.”

Harris has suffered attacks from Republican immigration since Biden ordered him to direct the administration’s efforts to address the causes of migration from countries such as Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala. He stressed that his focus is on improving living conditions for the people of these countries through economic and humanitarian aid to encourage them to stay at home instead of traveling to the US.

Republicans have tried to think of the administration as indifferent to border security, trying to revive a powerful political weapon against Democrats in the mid-2022 election. Trump plans to visit the area a week before Harris, and is confident he will take advantage of his trip to continue driving the GOP narrative.

Other administration officials have made numerous visits to the border, but the absence of Biden and Harris has left some Democrats worried because the damage has already been done. There is concern that the Biden administration has given the border security debate to Republicans.

“The administration makes Democrats weak,” Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Have I heard from the Democrats and Republicans around me what the hell is going on with this administration?”

Cuellar’s ​​constituency stretches from southern San Antonio to the U.S.-Mexico border, and he won the election last year with the smallest side of his nearly two-decade-long career. While he says he is not worried about the election again, he adds that “my colleagues are worried about me.”

Record immigrant arrivals

The record number of migrants who tried to cross the border in the first months of Biden’s rule has been seen. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 180,000 encounters in Mexico in May, the most since last March. The numbers prompted bans on the coronavirus pandemic to seek asylum, which prompted repeated attempts to cross over, as being trapped had no legal consequences.

Harris has received criticism from Republicans over his immigration policy [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]

Republicans jumped over those figures to attack Biden and Harris, who were weak in border security. Administrative officials, including Harris, deny the accusation. Harris repeatedly sent migrants on a recent visit to Guatemala: “Don’t come.”

But those comments were sparked by several progressives, most notably Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a New York representative, who said the message was “disappointing.”

It was an event that underscored the unprofitable political situation for Harris, who was frustrated by past administrations and took on an insurmountable problem that both parties used to use wedges and involvement during the campaign season.

If Biden chooses not to submit for a second term, he will be considered the main competitor to replace Harris and the immigration issue could become an opportunity to show his achievements or an albatross.

In a meeting with faith-based organizations, as well as shelter and legal service providers, Harris said he and Biden had “inherited a difficult situation.”

But “we’ve made progress in five months … there’s still more work to be done, but we’ve made progress.”




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