Harris' Office Denies Trump, GOP Pushed Her Into El Paso Visit

Vice President Kamala Harris' office is rejecting arguments that she is visiting El Paso on Friday — one week to the day before former President Donald Trump's planned visit — because of political pressure from Republicans and some Democrats after she and President Joe Biden stayed away from the U.S.-Mexico border during the ongoing surge in migration.

"This administration does not take their cues from Republican criticism, nor from the former President of the United States of America," Harris spokesperson and senior adviser Symone Sanders told reporters during a conference call Thursday. "We have said, over a number of different occasions — and the vice president has said, over the course — over the last three months, that she would go to the border. She has been before. She would go again. She would go when it was appropriate (and) when it made sense."

Biden put Harris in charge of the border situation earlier this year but said her focus was to be on stemming the migration problem at its roots in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The VP recently traveled to Guatemala and Mexico but has come under fire for laughing when asked when she plans to visit the border.

Her trip to El Paso was announced after Trump announced his own upcoming visit to the border.

Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said the "sole reason" for Harris' visit is because Trump, who will be interviewed on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" Friday, has announced his own trip to McAllen, Texas, next week.

"That's not leadership," said Harrington about Harris. "That's political panic."

Trump will be accompanied by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and several House Republicans.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Fox News that Trump’s announcement has put Harris on the spot.

"All of a sudden you put their head in a political vise, and then they start moving," he said. "But, you know like I said I’m glad she’s at least showing up, now what? We need actions."

Sanders said Harris' Friday visit will build on the diplomatic work she's accomplished during her recent trip and will "shed a spotlight on the administration’s work to build a fair, humane and orderly immigration system."

Harris left Washington for El Paso early Friday, according to press pool reports. She will visit the El Paso Border Patrol Station before meeting with advocates from faith-based organizations and shelter and legal service providers at the El Paso International Airport. She is also scheduled to deliver remarks to the press and take questions before departing El Paso for California.

According to the VP's office, this is her first visit to El Paso, but it said she's made trips to several border locations in California, her home state.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who represents the El Paso area, are accompanying Harris on her visit.

Harris has also come under fire for visiting El Paso, deemed less volatile than other border spots like McAllen or locations in Arizona.

According to Customs and Border Protection statistics, more than 180,000 immigrants were recorded coming across the border in May, marking a slight increase over the April numbers but the most since March 2000, reports Politico.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering lifting the use of Title 42 to keep the border closed. During the Trump era, the policy was used to seal the border, using the argument that immigrants could pose a health risk over COVID-19.

Some White House allies are also saying Trump's visit figured into Harris' trip.

"Nothing will make Joe Biden's border policies and immigration policies seem more popular than if Donald Trump makes himself the contrast," an immigration advocate close to the White House told Politico. "Trump's immigration policies were a huge drag on the Republican Party in 2017, 2018, and 2020. I truly can't think of anything that's more useful for the White House politically, when it comes to the border, then if Donald Trump wants to remind people like what he did down there, and that they hated that."