Vice President Kamala Harris’s plane en route to Guatemala has returned to Joint Base Andrews due to “technical issues.”
Harris will switch planes and continue en route to Guatemala City, where she will discuss the “root causes of migration” during her first international trip as vice president.
“It is a technical issue. there are no major safety concerns,” Symone Sanders, a spokeswoman for Harris, told the White House press pool.
VIDEO SHOWS YOUNG CHILD ABANDONED BY SMUGGLERS AT SOUTHERN BORDER
Harris is scheduled to spend one day in Guatemala City before traveling to Mexico for the second leg of her trip. She will be received by Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, who has said Harris “doesn’t hold back, which is good, she is frank” in their Zoom conferences.
“We are not on the same side of the coin. It is obvious,” he added, explaining later that “we are in agreement on the ‘what'” of the immigration crisis, “which is something,” he continued. “We are not in agreement on the ‘how.'”
Harris, who was given a lead role in addressing the substantial uptick in migrants by President Joe Biden, previously had a May 7 virtual conversation with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador about the “root causes of migration.”
Biden has indicated he intends to visit the border but has not announced specific travel plans.
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The United States is facing a large number of migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors, crossing the southern border. More than 178,000 migrants were encountered at the border in April, according to data collected by Customs and Border Protection. Reports indicate that an unprecedented 117,000 migrant children will enter the U.S. by the end of the year.
In the most recent border surge prior to this one, 80,000 unaccompanied minors arrived at the southern border in 2019.
