“The only problem is she’s not visiting the border. She’s not even in her home state of California, which has a border with Mexico. She’s in Guatemala,” Cornyn said during a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
On Monday, the vice president traveled to Guatemala City and appeared in a joint press conference with the nation’s president, Alejandro Giammattei.
Stressing that the White House’s aim is to help Guatemalans “find hope at home,” Harris urged Guatemalan individuals not to attempt to relocate to the U.S.
“At the same time, I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border — do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border,” the vice president said.
“There are legal methods by which migration can and should occur, but we as one of our priorities will discourage illegal migration, and I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back.”
In his speech, Cornyn suggested that Harris, who is leading the White House’s immigration policy, is not being responsive to the influx of illegal crossings.
“Imagine calling 911 when your home is on fire and watching as they hose down your neighbor’s house instead. That’s what this feels like,” Cornyn remarked.
The senator touted S. 1358, also known as the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, a border security bill he introduced with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ).
According to the most recent border enforcement statistics provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the number of enforcement encounters with illegal aliens in the southern U.S. broke a 20-year record in April.
In an interview with Lester Holt on TODAY, Holt asked Harris whether she had any plans to visit the southern border.
“At some point. We are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So, this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border,” Harris repeated.
“You haven’t been to the border,” Holt noted.
“And I haven’t been to Europe. I mean, I don’t, I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” Harris replied, adding that her focus is on the “root causes of migration.”
Though it has faced fiery criticisms from Republicans over the current border crisis, the Biden administration is trying to reunite children who they contend were “unjustly separated from their parents” by former President Trump’s administration during the implementation of his zero tolerance policy.
The Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, which is led by U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, reported that it will reunite 29 families in the “coming weeks.”
“[DHS] is committed to the relentless pursuit of reunifying families who were cruelly separated by the previous Administration,” Mayorkas said in a press release.
Harris traveled to Mexico on Tuesday to “renew our nation’s important partnership with Mexico.”
Texas is currently in a state of disaster due to the unusually high numbers of illegal entries into the state and the criminal activity that accompanies illegal immigration.
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Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a senior reporter for The Texan and a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State. He has coached competitive speech and debate and has been involved in politics since a young age. One of Hayden's favorite quotes is by Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."
