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Kamala Harris defends not visiting U.S.-Mexico border

08 June 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Vice President Kamala Harris defended her decision to not personally visit the U.S.-Mexico border during an interview with NBC News that aired Tuesday, arguing that her focus is on addressing the underlying causes of migration.

Why it matters: President Biden has put Harris in charge of solving the migrant surge at the southern border, a crisis that has threatened to overshadow some of the administration's early successes.

  • The number of migrants illegally crossing the border this fiscal year is already the most since 2006 — with four months left to go, according to preliminary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by Axios.
  • Republicans have repeatedly criticized Harris for not visiting the border, accusing her of ignoring the crisis. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents a border district, has also encouraged Biden and Harris to visit.

Driving the news: The interview took place in Guatemala during the first stop on Harris' first foreign trip as vice president.

  • The trip to Guatemala and Mexico is intended to strengthen diplomatic ties with Latin America and identify "the reason people are arriving at our border" in order to address the root causes of the surge, according to Harris.
  • The policies the Biden administration is pursuing are not a "quick fix" and will take time to yield results, Harris acknowledged, though she insisted the payoff would be worth it.

What they're saying: "At some point, you know, we are going to the border. We've been to the border," Harris said when asked if she has plans to visit. "So this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border," she repeated, referring to other top administration officials.

  • Pressed on why she hasn't personally visited, Harris responded: "And I haven't been to Europe. And I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making. I'm not discounting the importance of the border."
  • "I'm in Guatemala because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration," she continued. "There may be some who think that that is not important, but it is my firm belief that if we care about what's happening at the border, we better care about the root causes and address them. And so that's what I'm doing.”

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.