Harris plans visit to Mexico and Guatemala

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Wednesday she plans to visit Mexico and Guatemala soon, in an effort to slow migration to the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Joe Biden has moved away from his predecessor Donald Trump's hardline migration approach.

He's delegated border issues to Harris, which involves working with Central America’s Northern Triangle countries, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“I will tell you that these are issues that are not going to be addressed overnight in terms of the root causes issue. A large part of our focus is diplomatic in terms of what we can do in a way that is about working with these countries. For example, I have talked with the president of Mexico, the president of Guatemala.”

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said on Wednesday his government was likely to reach agreements with the U.S. during Harris’ planned visit, but added no deals were yet on the table.

Meanwhile, U.S. Republican lawmakers have criticized Harris for not yet visiting the southern U.S. border.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy took to Twitter, saying, "It has been 3 weeks since President Biden appointed VP Harris to oversee the border. Since then, the crisis has only continued to spiral out of control."

A record number of unaccompanied children attempted to cross the border in March and in total, more than 170,000 migrants were caught at the border last month.

To curb migration, Harris said the U.S. must focus on the region’s economic development.