June 6, 2021- 5:24 p.m.
Just minutes after Kamala Harris departed for Guatemala City on Sunday Air Force 2 was forced to turn around due to ‘technical issues.’
‘It is a technical issue. There are no major safety concerns,’ Harris’ chief spokesperson Symone Sanders told reporters.
After getting off the ground, reporters indicated there was an ‘unusual sound’, which appeared to be coming from landing gear as the plane took off. Upon landing, all seemed normal.
The vice president unplanned after landing back at Joint Base Andrews in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and boarded another plane.
She told reporters while deplaning, ‘I’m good. I’m good. We all said a little prayer but we’re good.’
After standing by for an hour-and-a-half, Harris boarded a new plane and continued on to Guatemala Sunday afternoon as part of her first foreign trip where she will take on more in her capacity as ‘border czar.’Â
The vice president will spend Sunday night in Guatemala and begin her two-day trip with meetings on Monday aimed at addressing root causes of people fleeing from the country.
In March, President Joe Biden put Harris in charge of the massive migration crisis.
As it appeared the problem wasn’t going anywhere at the southern border, the administration quickly rebranded to indicate Harris is focused on addressing root causes that lead to mass migration to the U.S. from Northern Triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Since taking over, Republicans have slammed the vice president for not once visiting the southern border, where enforcement groups are overwhelmed and facilities reached near 2,000 per cent capacity at some points.
Harris said she will go to Mexico during her trip south of the border, but maintained that she will still not stop at the U.S. side of the border.
She has also already spoken on the phone with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
During her first foreign trip Harris will sit down with Giammattei on Monday and engage in events with Guatemalan community leaders and entrepreneurs afterwards.
On Tuesday, she will travel to Mexico City to meet with President López Obrador and participate in roundtables with women entrepreneurs and labor leaders in Mexico.
The White House, along with experts, claim that Harris’ goal is to show the U.S. cares and is looking for long term solutions.
The two-day visit is not intended to be a rollout of some massive plan to solve the problem of thousands of Central Americans and Mexicans fleeing to the U.S. seeking asylum.
