副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯自周五上任以来首次访问南部边境，在共和党的压力下领先于前总统唐纳德·特朗普下周这样做。
哈里斯首先参观了德克萨斯州埃尔帕索的一个处理中心，白宫表示，在与国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯举行新闻发布会之前，她在那里会见了移民青少年、法律和其他倡导者。
这是自总统以来哈里斯第一次前往美墨边境乔·拜登责成她解决中美洲移民的根本原因以及应对移民流动的挑战，特别是家庭和无人陪伴的儿童。
帕特里克·法伦/法新社通过盖蒂图像
副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯和国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯(左三).
一些民主党人也向哈里斯施压，要求他访问边境，移民倡导者批评拜登和哈里斯在解决这个问题上行动太慢。
“我们今天在这里是为了解决，并谈论是什么把人们带到了美国边境，并反对继续解决根本原因，导致人们离开他们的祖国，”哈里斯着陆后对pool记者说。
她辩称，在本月早些时候访问墨西哥和危地马拉期间，她一再拒绝回答关于她边境之行的问题，之后来到埃尔帕索“总是计划好的”。
“这次访问的重要方面是在我们在危地马拉和墨西哥所做的工作之后领导这次访问，”她说。“这不是新计划。但现实是，我们必须处理原因，我们必须处理结果。”
杰奎琳·马丁/美联社
2021年6月25日，副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯在离开空军二号后接受媒体采访
哈里斯抨击了她所说的特朗普的“留在墨西哥”政策和他的家庭分居政策造成的“灾难”。
“在埃尔帕索发生的事情，实际上在很多方面，突出了移民问题的很多方面。正是在埃尔帕索，前政府的儿童分离政策被公之于众。所以我们已经在这个地区看到了灾难性的后果。”
与此同时，当她与年轻的移民女孩讨论会议时，哈里斯说，“这个问题不能简化为政治问题。”
“我们在谈论孩子。我们在谈论家庭。我们在谈论痛苦。我们的方法必须是深思熟虑和有效的，”她说。“如果我们停止花言巧语和指责，做我们需要做的事情，我们就可以考虑所有这些观点，制定有意义的良好公共政策。”
周四，当被问及为什么哈里斯要去埃尔帕索而不是里奥格兰德山谷时，她的首席发言人西蒙·桑德斯(Symone Sanders)为埃尔帕索的选择进行了辩护。里奥格兰德山谷的移民流量更高，唐娜的设施完全被淹没了。
“埃尔帕索是前政府家庭分离政策的发源地，”她说。“这是故事的一个重要部分，也是你可以期待我们明天在实地继续讲述的部分。”
特朗普预计还将于6月30日访问南部边境，但桑德斯表示，这并没有影响哈里斯决定现在选择她离开的时间。
她说:“本届政府没有从共和党的批评和美国前总统那里得到任何暗示。“我们在许多不同的场合说过，副总统在过去的三个月里也说过，她会去边境，她以前去过，她会再去。她会在合适的时候去，在有意义的时候去。明天的这次旅行，这个时机是有意义的。”
拜登在一次采访中告诉移民“不要来”美国广播公司新闻采访今年3月，她在周四首次谈到哈里斯的边境之行，称她已经为了解需要做些什么来缓解那里的危机奠定了基础。
拜登说:“到目前为止，她做得很好，她下台的原因很重要，她现在已经建立了标准，与墨西哥和危地马拉总统交谈过，访问了该地区，知道我们需要做什么。”
除了梅尔卡斯，哈里斯还与代表埃尔帕索的民主党众议员维罗妮卡·埃斯科瓦尔和民主党参议员迪克·德宾一起旅行。
Harris visits border amid GOP pressure, blames Trump migrant family separation policy
Vice President Kamala Harris made her first visit to the southern border since taking office on Friday,amid GOP pressureand ahead of former PresidentDonald Trumpdoing so next week.
Harris began by touring a processing center in El Paso, Texas, where the White House said she met with migrant teenagers and legal and other advocates before holding a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
It’s the first time Harris has traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border since PresidentJoe Bidentasked her with tackling the root causes of migration from Central America and challenges dealing with the flow of migrants, especially families and unaccompanied children.
Some Democrats have pressured Harris to visit the border as well, and migrant advocates have criticized Biden and Harris for moving too slowly to address the problem.
"We are here today to address, and to talk about what has brought people to the U.S. border, and against continue to address the root causes, cause people to leave their home country," Harris told pool reporters after landing.
She argued that it was "always the plan" to come to El Paso after repeatedly brushing off questions about her travel to the border during her trip earlier this month to Mexico and Guatemala.
"The important aspect of this visit is leading this visit after the work that we did in Guatemala and Mexico," she said. "It's not a new plan. But the reality of it is that we have to deal with causes, and we have to deal with the effects."
Harris took a swipe at what she called the "disaster" that resulted from Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy and his family separation policy.
"What is happening here in El Paso, really is in many ways, highlights many of the facets on the issue of immigration. 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."
At the same, as she discussed meeting with young migrant girls, Harris said "this issue cannot be reduced to a political issue."
"We’re talking about children. We’re talking about families. We’re talking about suffering. And our approach has to be thoughtful and effective," she said. "We can take all of these perspectives into account and have meaningful good public policy if we just stop the rhetoric and finger pointing and do what we need to do."
When asked on a call with reporters Thursday why Harris was traveling to El Paso instead of the Rio Grande Valley, where there is a higher flow of migrants and the facility in Donna was completely overwhelmed, her chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders, defended the El Paso choice to visit.
“El Paso being the birthplace of the previous administration's family separation policy,” she said. “It is an important part of the story here, and one that you can expect we will continue to tell tomorrow on the ground.”
Trump is also expected to visit the southern border on June 30, but Sanders said that played no factor in Harris deciding to pick now as the time for her to go.
"This administration does not take their cues from Republican criticism, nor from the former president of the United States of America," she said. "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, when it made sense. And this trip tomorrow, this timing is what made sense."
Biden, who told migrants "don't come" in anABC News interviewin March, weighed in on Harris' trip to the border for the first time Thursday, saying she has essentially laid the groundwork to know what needs to be done to ameliorate the crisis there.
"She’s done a great job so far, and the reason why it’s important that she go down, she’s now set up the criteria, having spoken with the president of Mexico and Guatemala, visited the region, to know what we need to do," Biden said.
In addition to Mayorkas, Harris traveled with Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.
