Vice President Kamala Harris has arrived in Guatemala, the first leg of her tour to determine the “root causes of migration.”
The vice president touched down at 6:18 p.m. local time, at which point she was greeted by an L-shaped red carpet where Foreign Affairs Minister Pedro Brolo and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala William Popp met her after she deplaned. Harris’s trip was delayed by plane troubles, which spokeswoman Symone Sanders said presented “no immediate safety issue.”
“Shortly after takeoff from Joint Base Andrews en route to Guatemala City, the Air Force Two crew noticed the landing gear was not storing as it should which could lead to further mechanical issues,” she said in an update to the White House press pool. “While there was no immediate safety issue, out of an abundance of caution, they returned to Joint Base Andrews where they have all the parts and mechanics they need to fix the issue. Passengers boarded the back-up C32, which is an Air Force Boeing modified 757.”
KAMALA HARRIS’S FLIGHT TO GUATEMALA DELAYED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES
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 Monday night 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 said. “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 held 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.
