美国副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯周三宣布了访问计划墨西哥危地马拉将是她第一次正式出国访问，她将继续领导白宫在南部边境移民挑战上的外交努力。她还与区域专家就应对移民激增的潜在解决方案举行了虚拟简报会。
但她仍没有访问边境的计划，这一决定加剧了共和党人的批评，即拜登政府的回应仍然不够充分和不严肃，尽管关押在过度拥挤的拘留中心的未成年人的不和谐照片引起了对这个问题的新关注。
白宫周三表示，总统乔·拜登也没打算去。
有代表性的史蒂夫·斯卡利斯众议院共和党党鞭哈里斯指责哈里斯出于政治考虑避开边境。
“拜登总统让卡玛拉•哈里斯负责此事，她拒绝下台，因为她不想与这项不光彩的政策扯上关系，”他在周三上午的新闻发布会上说。
哈里斯周三强调，她被赋予处理向美国移民的根本原因的工作，而国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯(Alejandro Mayorkas)的任务是处理边境移民的增加。
哈里斯说，如果这些根本原因得不到解决，“我们只是处在一个只处理症状的永久系统中。”
马约尔卡斯上个月访问了边境，拜登已经派出了其他一些高级助手来评估那里的局势。
不访问边境的决定突显出拜登政府在应对移民急剧涌入方面面临的棘手政治挑战，而此时拜登和哈里斯宁愿将全国的注意力——以及他们有限的政治资本——集中在推动国会通过2万亿美元的基础设施建设计划上。
今年3月，试图越境的孤身儿童人数创下纪录，边境巡逻队在南部边境遭遇的移民人数达到20年来的最高水平——不到17万人。这使得美国海关和边境巡逻队管理的拘留设施不堪重负，拜登政府最近几周匆忙为边境沿线的儿童和家庭开放紧急设施。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)表示，拜登的“重点是解决方案”，并表示紧急避难所是“进步”的标志。
但美联社-NORC公共事务研究中心本月进行的一项调查发现，40%的美国人不赞成拜登处理没有父母陪同的儿童到达南部边境的问题，相比之下，只有24%的人赞成。百分之三十五的人都没有主见。
与此同时，哈里斯在处理一个长期以来一直未能找到简单解决方案的问题时，面临着自己的一系列挑战。她被赋予监督外交努力的任务，以解决刺激萨尔瓦多、危地马拉和洪都拉斯等北三角国家移民的问题，包括敦促他们加强边境执法，同时制定和实施一项长期战略，解决这些国家的移民原因。
虽然哈里斯已经与墨西哥和危地马拉的领导人建立了工作关系，但她尚未与洪都拉斯和萨尔瓦多的领导人接触，这两个国家都卷入了腐败丑闻。在被美国官员批评侵犯人权后，萨尔瓦多总统最近冷落了美国驻该地区特使。
但哈里斯周三在向地区专家介绍情况之前表示，她意识到了这一挑战，并表示解决该地区的问题需要时间。
“我们必须想出如何评估我们的影响，”她说，但补充说，“这不会在一夜之间显而易见。”
哈里斯说:“我们必须做的工作需要持续的承诺，需要我们与合作伙伴一起制度化，”这包括在该地区的长期战略。
她补充道:“看到这项工作的好处需要一些时间，但这是值得的。”
Harris planning first trip abroad to Mexico, Guatemala
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Kamala Harris announced plans Wednesday to visitMexicoand Guatemala on what would be her first official trip abroad, as she pushes ahead on leading the White House's diplomatic efforts on the migration challenge at the southern border. She also held a virtual briefing with regional experts on potential solutions to the sharp increase in migrants.
But she still has no plans to visit the border, a decision that is fueling Republican criticism that the Biden administration’s response remains inadequate and unserious even as jarring photos of minors held in overcrowded detention centers draw fresh attention to the problem.
The White House said Wednesday that PresidentJoe Bidenhad no plans to visit either.
Rep.Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip, accused Harris of avoiding the border out of political considerations.
“President Biden puts Kamala Harris in charge of it, and she refuses to go down, because she doesn't want to be associated with this disgraceful policy," he said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Harris emphasized Wednesday that she was given the job of dealing with the root causes of migration to the U.S., while Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was tasked with tackling the increase in migration at the border.
Harris said if those root causes are not addressed, “we are just in a perpetual system of only dealing with the symptoms.”
Mayorkas visited the border last month, and Biden has dispatched a number of other top aides to evaluate the situation there.
The decision not to visit the border underscores the thorny political challenge the Biden administration faces in dealing with the steep influx of migrants at a time when Biden and Harris would rather focus the nation's attention — and their limited political capital — on moving a $2 trillion infrastructure package through Congress.
In March, a record number of unaccompanied children attempted to cross the border, and the Border Patrol had its largest number of encounters overall with migrants on the southern border — just under 170,000 — in two decades. That has detention facilities run by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol overwhelmed, and the Biden administration has rushed to open up emergency facilities for children and families along the border in recent weeks.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's “focus is on solutions” and said the emergency shelters were a sign of “progress.”
But an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted this month found that 40% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of children reaching the southern border without their parents, compared with just 24% who approve. Thirty-five percent don’t have an opinion either way.
Harris, meanwhile, faces her own set of challenges in taking on a problem that has long eluded easy solutions. She’s been tasked with overseeing diplomatic efforts to deal with issues spurring migration in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which includes pressing them to strengthen enforcement on their borders, while also developing and implementing a long-term strategy that gets at the causes of migration from those countries.
And while Harris has established a working relationship with the leaders of Mexico and Guatemala, she has yet to engage with the leaders of Honduras and El Salvador, who are both embroiled in corruption scandals. The president of El Salvador recently snubbed the U.S. envoy to the region after being criticized by U.S. officials for human rights abuses.
But Harris signaled Wednesday, before beginning her briefing with regional experts, that she's aware of the challenge and said solving the region's problems would take time.
“We have to figure out how to assess our impact,” she said, but added, “it will not be obvious overnight.”
"The work we have to do is going to require a commitment that is continuous, that we institutionalize with our partners,” and that includes a long-term strategy in the region, Harris said.
She added: “It will take some time to see the benefits of that work, but it will be worth it.”
