Republican New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell sent a letter Tuesday to Vice President Kamala Harris, calling on her to accompany former President Donald Trump and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on their upcoming trip to the border amid the crisis.
Herrell called Harris out for not visiting the southern border and said Harris had not responded to her earlier offer to visit the southern border together. Harris has not yet made public plans to visit the southern border, even though President Joe Biden put her in charge to lead the administration’s response to the border crisis. Harris did make a trip to Central America.
“While I was disappointed you chose not to respond to me, I want to reiterate my offer for you to visit the border with me and hear directly from hardworking New Mexicans about how your border policies are harming them and threatening their families and livelihoods,” Herrell wrote in the letter.
READ THE LETTER HERE:
If @VP won’t visit the border with me, she should go see it with President Trump and @GovAbbott next week. pic.twitter.com/E1rR21ZZNf
— Rep. Yvette Herrell (@RepHerrell) June 22, 2021
Border patrol apprehended 180,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in May, following 178,000 in April and 173,000 in March. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported the fewest number of illegal immigrants in the agency’s history. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Hagerty Offers Kamala Harris Personal Reconnaissance Ahead Of Vice President’s Trip To Northern Triangle)
Republican lawmakers have continued to hammer Harris and the Biden administration for not handling the crisis — and more specifically, for not going to see it with their own eyes. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Chip Roy Sends Memo Advising Kamala Harris On Solving The Border Crisis, Says VP Should Take A Trip)
Trump accepted Abbott’s invitation to join him during a scheduled visit on Wednesday, June 30.
“I have accepted the invitation of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to join him on an official visit to our Nation’s decimated Southern Border on Wednesday, June 30, 2021,” Trump wrote when he made the announcement.
“We went from detain-and-remove to catch-and-release. We went from having border security that was the envy of the world to a lawless border that is now pitied around the world. Biden and Harris have handed control of our border over to cartels, criminals, and coyotes,” he continued.