Jen Psaki Defends VP Harris Visit To El Paso

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, stated that Vice President Kamala had chosen to visit El Paso at the southern border region of Mexico because it was where Trump’s immigration policies were “so difficult.”

She said to reporters that “it was the place where former president… put in some of his immigration policy which we felt were so problematic,” Friday.

“It is here in El Paso that the previous administration’s child separation policy was unveiled. And so we’ve seen the disastrous effects of that right here in this region,” the vice president said in her own briefing after her visit. “It is here in El Paso that the return to Mexico policy from the previous administration was implemented. We have seen the disaster that resulted from that here in El Paso.”

Most illegal border crossings in El Paso are not from Central America, but Mexico. It is usually in the Rio Grande Valley that migrants from these regions arrive, as it is closer to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Honduras. Critics suggested that Harris should have visited this area to better understand the crisis.

“The border is not all the same. El Paso has definitely been negatively effected by the Biden-Harris open border policies,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter. “But why would she deliberately avoid that part of the border where she would be likely to learn the most about the consequences of Biden-Harris immigration policy failures and how to correct them?”

Harris praised the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to process migrants arriving at the southern border.

“We are seeing here in El Paso unaccompanied minors … who are filled with optimism, but they are without their family. They’re being processed through the system. But it really does speak to also the humanitarian nature of the work that must be done,” Harris said.

Trump claimed in 2019 that his border wall had dramatically reduced crime rates in El Paso.

Harris was able to visit El Paso’s border patrol and processing center before being given an “operational briefing”. She was harshly criticized for taking 93 days to visit the border after being appointed to manage the crisis of migration.

The White House stressed Harris’s job was to address root causes. Harris visited Mexico and Guatemala prior to heading to El Paso. The vice president dismissed a visit to the border two weeks ago in Guatemala as a “grand gesture”. Before that, she was open to the idea.

Harris said that Harris had stated back in March that he would be going to Texas to see the border. Harris spoke to reporters upon landing in Texas. “Coming to Texas’ border…is about looking at the consequences of what we have witnessed in Central America.”