Guatemala's president says Kamala Harris "doesn't hold back"
Source: CBS News
Ed O'Keefe 5 hrs ago
Guatemala City The world leader who has spoken with Vice President Kamala Harris most frequently about U.S. immigration policy describes her as a straight-talking, detail-oriented leader paying careful attention to the long-standing reasons that people leave his country.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who is set to host Harris on Monday here during her first international trip as vice president, also says that the change of administrations in Washington was exploited by human traffickers, known as "coyotes," who ferried thousands of children to the U.S.-Mexico border within days of President Biden formally rescinding the Trump-era family separation policy. Giammattei wants American lawmakers to toughen federal laws against traffickers and is ready to extradite them to face charges.
Harris, he said, is open to the idea, and is also expected to announce plans for Justice Department prosecutors to partner with Guatemalan authorities to prosecute drug traffickers and other transnational crimes. The White House wouldn't comment Friday on those apparent plans ahead of the vice president's trip.
Mr. Biden tasked Harris with tackling the record flow of undocumented immigrants in March. Her two-day trip to Guatemala and Mexico caps weeks of intense meetings with regional leaders and members of civil society, plus what aides describe as intense meetings on the subject with U.S. experts and State Department and National Security Council staffers.
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