During a visit prompted by G.O.P. criticism, Harris says immigration ‘cannot be reduced to a political issue.’

For weeks, Republicans criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not visiting the border as part of her work to address the root causes of migration. On Friday, the vice president made the trip, and said a meeting with young girls in a border facility had reminded her that the issue should not be reduced to partisan politics.

“They were asking me questions: ‘How do you become the first woman vice president?’” Ms. Harris said. “It also reminds me of the fact that this issue cannot be reduced to a political issue. We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we are talking about suffering.”

She and Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, faced a hailstorm of questions about the Biden administration’s handling of an influx of migrants. She has been criticized for visiting El Paso instead of the lower Rio Grande Valley, considered the epicenter of the surge in migration.

“It is here in El Paso that the previous administration’s child separation policy was implemented,” Ms. Harris said.

She was also criticized for not visiting a tent complex at nearby Fort Bliss, where migrant children are being held. The Biden administration announced that Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, would travel there next week.
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And Ms. Harris and Mr. Mayorkas were asked when the administration would end Title 42, a Trump-era rule that allows the U.S. government to expel migrants, including asylum seekers, for public health reasons. The administration is working on plans to do so

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