Vice President Kamala Harris laughed when asked whether she’d be visiting the Southwest U.S. border to see the hundreds of migrant families, children and teens crammed inside overwhelmed detention facilities, telling a reporter “not today.”
The question was posed during a stopover in Florida Monday, where Harris had traveled to visit a vaccination site.
“Do you plan on visiting the border?” a reporter asked bluntly.
After stuttering for a moment, Harris cackled, “Not today!”
“But I have before and I’m sure I will again,” she added before walking away.
5,000 unaccompanied minors are stranded in temporary facilities at the border.
— Stand For America (@standamericanow) March 23, 2021
What is so funny @KamalaHarris?pic.twitter.com/RSTmGz6dVW
It’s not immediately clear what’s so funny about the unprecedented numbers of migrants, including families with small children and thousands of unaccompanied teenagers, flooding across the border in such droves that agents in one sector are considering releasing asylum-seekers into the interior of the country without so much as a notice to appear in court, leaving it up to the migrant to contact an attorney and schedule their own hearing. Photos emerged earlier this week showing one hastily-erected overflow facility in Texas filled with hundreds of migrant families and kids sleeping on concrete floors under space blankets in locked cells made of chain-link fencing and plexiglass.
Related: Report: Border Agents May Begin Releasing Illegal Aliens Without a Notice to Appear In Court
So far, the Biden administration has refused to label the record-breaking migrant wave a "crisis."