At the time, Harris said “we’ve been to the border” in an interview with Lester Holt. When he pressed her on the point, saying she hadn’t been to the border since becoming VP, she responded with, “And I haven't been to Europe," which spurred more criticism from the right.
The VP’s office announced Wednesday that she would go to El Paso, which some viewed as Harris yielding to the criticism. She traveled with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), who represents the El Paso area.
In a news conference on Friday at the end of her trip, she continued to emphasize the administration’s focus on the “root causes” of migration, saying you can’t deal with a symptom of a problem without dealing with the causes.
"My trip to Guatemala and Mexico was about addressing the root causes," she said. "The stories that I heard and the interactions we had today reinforce the nature of those root causes."
At the onset of her remarks, Harris named the root causes that she sought to address in Guatemala and Mexico — a lack of economic opportunity, violence, corruption, food insecurity and basic needs not being met.
“So, the work that we've to do is the work of addressing the cause — the root causes,” she said. “Otherwise, we will continue to see the effect — what is happening at the border. It's going to require, as we've been doing, a comprehensive approach that acknowledges each piece of this. "
Earlier in the day, the VP brought up the Trump administration’s handling of immigration. “We inherited a tough situation,” she said before a roundtable discussion, where she met with advocates from faith-based organizations, as well as shelter and legal service providers, to discuss the immigration situation.
Still, the VP and her entourage stressed the progress the Biden administration has made so far. Mayorkas detailed overcrowding that occurred in March, with unaccompanied children staying in the border patrol station for an average of more than 120 hours.
“Today, the situation is dramatically different,” he said. “The border patrol station is not overcrowded with children, and an unaccompanied child spent an average of less than 30 hours in it.”
In his remarks, Durbin pointed to the necessity of a bipartisan effort for immigration reform in Congress.
"It's been 35 years since we've had an immigration bill,” the senator said. “Everybody complains concerning the immigration system and they should. It's broken. But when it comes to dealing with it, several folks in the Senate and the House don't want to lift a finger."
To end the press conference, Harris reiterated the importance of a long-term investment in fixing immigration problems, adding that that the U.S. has a responsibility to address it.
"And if we ignore that responsibility," she added, "it will visit itself upon us in a very domestic way.