GOP lawmakers urge VP Harris to visit border ASAP: ‘We invite you to make the journey’

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Joe Concha rips Kamala Harris for failing to answer questions on border crisis

Fox News contributor Joe Concha on critics blasting Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to visit the border.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., and six other GOP lawmakers are urging Vice President Kamala Harris to visit the U.S.-Mexico border as soon as possible.

Congress members note that President Biden on March 24 tapped Harris to lead "efforts to stem migration across the U.S.-Mexico border."

"There is no substitute for seeing overcrowded migrant facilities in person and speaking directly with our border agents and officers who are dealing with this crisis on the human level every day," Fleischmann, ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee's Homeland Security Subcommittee, wrote. 

He added that lawmakers "are greatly concerned about the Biden administration's ability or willingness to respond to this humanitarian crisis when neither the President nor the Vice President has gone to the Southwest border to assess this crisis for themselves."

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"We invite you to make the journey to the southern border and to work with Congress to find solutions to mitigate this humanitarian and national security crisis in order to protect our nation," Fleischmann continued.

The Tennessee Republican, along with GOP Reps. John Katko of New York, Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee, Carlos Gimenez of Florida and Dan Bishop of North Carolina, as well as Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson of Iowa, signed a Tuesday letter to the vice president.

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Fleishmann visited the border in mid-March to see conditions at migrant facilities in person. Dozens of other Republican members of Congress have done the same in recent months. House and Senate Republicans have demanded answers regarding conditions at the border in letters to various members of the Biden administration.

Migrants who aim to reach the U.S. walk along a highway as they leave San Pedro Sula, Honduras before dawn Tuesday. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on April 7 that she didn't have "any trips to outline or preview" in regard to the vice president's plans to visit the border.

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The Biden administration continues to grapple with what some lawmakers are describing as a "crisis" at the border. 

While border encounters have been steadily increasing since April of last year "due to reasons which include violence, natural disasters, food insecurity and poverty in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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Some lawmakers and political pundits, however, attribute the influx of migrants to the president's efforts to provide more pathways to citizenship for migrants and refugees coming to the U.S.

In March, CBP recorded 172,000 border encounters -- a 71% increase since February 2021. CBP has had a total of 569,800 encounters in fiscal year 2021 alone -- a 24% increase compared to the same time period in 2020 and a 34% increase compared to 2019, despite an ongoing pandemic.

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While single adults make up the largest number of CBP encounters, the agency has seen a "significant increase" in unaccompanied minors traveling from Central America. CBP recorded nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minor encounters in March -- a 100% increase since February.

While unaccompanied minor encounters made up only 11% of total encounters in March, they make up the largest demographic group being held in overcrowded CPB facilities.