Why Harris has reportedly embraced migration duties

Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Mexico and Guatemala on Sunday for her first trip abroad while in office. While there she's expected to meet with political and civil society leaders in what's widely seen as a first step toward shoring up the Biden administration's strategy for managing the migration flow at the United States' southern border.

Initially, Harris' aides were "irked" by the fact that Biden picked her to lead the White House's migration efforts, The New York Times reports. They worried it would lead to expectations that she was expected to solve the volatile immigration crisis on her own, setting her up for failure, but over time Harris and her advisers have "warmed to the task," several people familiar with the vice president's thinking told the Times.

They now think that Harris has a great opportunity to build her foreign policy resume by negotiating a key issue with world leaders on a global stage, giving her a chance to "prove that she can pass the commander-in-chief test," the Times reports. Read more at The New York Times and USA Today.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up