By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday she will travel to Guatemala and Mexico next month, as she spearheads the Biden administration’s efforts to deal with an increase in migration at the U.S. southern border.
“Currently, the plan is for me to travel to Mexico and Guatemala on June 7 and 8th. And I’m very much looking forward to that trip,” Harris told reporters while on a visit to Rhode Island.
Harris has spoken twice with the president of Guatemala and once with the president of Mexico. She is expected to speak to the Mexican president again this week.
Separately, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo told Reuters on Wednesday the country has asked the United States for support in fighting drug cartel money laundering that the Central American country sees as a major source of corruption.
In March, President Joe Biden entrusted Harris with leading U.S. diplomatic efforts to cut immigration from Mexico and Central America’s “Northern Triangle” countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – as the administration grapples with a sharp rise in migrant crossings, mostly from Central America.
On Monday, Biden resurrected a plan to raise refugee admissions this year to 62,500 after drawing criticism from supporters for initially keeping the refugee cap at a historically low level set by the Trump administration.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Bill Berkrot)
