Former president of the United States Donald Trump is considering a visit to the Southern border “soon”, while US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been tapped by President Joe Biden to lead talks with Mexico and other countries on migrant surge issue, still doesn't have a border visit on her schedule.
“The vice president is not doing the border,” spokeswoman Symone Sanders said on Friday.
“You can expect she will be speaking with leaders from the region in the near future,” she said.
President Biden announced this week that he had asked Harris to lead efforts with “Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that are going to need help in stemming” migration, adding that the vice president is the “most qualified person” for the job.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is mulling visiting the border as he eyes a public political comeback, Trump aide Jason Miller said on Thursday, adding that he first wants to give President Biden room to fail.
“I think there’s a very fine line between calling someone out on policies and then appearing to do something that’s showboating or give Joe Biden an opportunity to point and say, ‘See this isn’t serious, look at President Trump down at the border making a scene out of this,'” Miller added.
“Not immediately, but I could see the trip at some point in the future,” he said.
Border Crisis
After massive caravans of migrants from Central American countries seeking asylum began to move toward the United States through Mexico in the fall of 2018, Trump had to declare a national emergency in February to secure funds to build a barrier on the border with Mexico to tackle the crisis.
Mexico later agreed to tighten controls on its northern border following a steady rise in punitive import tariffs. In the final three months of 2019, as reported by US Customs and Border Protection, apprehensions of illegal border crossers from the three Central American nations had slowed to about 10,000 per month, compared with previous monthly rates exceeding 100,000 each month.
The number of apprehensions by federal agents at the border topped 100,000 in February. Biden told migrants in an interview with ABC News “don’t come” and cited COVID-19 restrictions.