Harris Visits Southern Border
Summary from AllSides News Team
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to El Paso, Texas on Friday to visit the U.S.-Mexico border alongside Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It's Harris's first trip to the border since President Joe Biden tasked her in late March with exploring the root causes of immigration to the U.S. from Central America. Harris has faced intense criticism, both from Republicans and progressive Democrats, for her purportedly lackadaisical handling of the assignment so far. The number of immigrants arriving at the border is at its highest point in over two decades.
Coverage across the spectrum highlighted the news. Some reports from right-rated sources focused on Harris's seemingly defensive answers to reporters in El Paso on Friday; others highlighted her apparent blame of the Trump administration for the current situation at the southern border. Coverage from left-rated sources focused more on Harris's objectives for her Friday trip, and on her responses to criticism. Updated 6/25/21 at 3:27 p.m. ET
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Harris answers question about border visit by attacking Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris flipped a question at her Friday press conference in Texas into a chance to attack former President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies.
Republicans and even some Democrats had previously criticized the vice president for making her first border trip to El Paso, a city nearly 1,000 miles away from what they call the epicenter of the border crisis, and the first question at Harris's press conference asked why she selected El Paso over an area like the Rio Grande Valley.
"So first of all, what is happening here in El...
From the Left
Kamala Harris makes her first visit to the US-Mexico border as vice president
Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southern border in El Paso, Texas, on Friday to see a migrant processing center, following dogged criticism for not having visited the US-Mexico border and a rocky first foreign trip to Guatemala and Mexico earlier this month.
The vice president toured the El Paso central processing center, a US Customs and Border Protection facility, and spoke with five young girls from Central America while there.
During a news conference at the conclusion of her trip, Harris said the girls were there without their parents.
"They are without...
From the Left
Harris Visits The Southern Border After Trying To Keep The Focus Away From It 
Vice President Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border Friday in El Paso, Texas, after weeks of badgering by Republicans and at the urging of some Democrats, and called for an end to the political "finger pointing" over who's to blame for record numbers of people seeking asylum at the southern border.
Harris is in charge of the thorny issue of migration from Central America at a time when the administration has struggled to keep up with a surge in migrants.
In March, President Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes...
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