Texas Democrat: Vice President Making ‘Politically’ Safe Trip to Southern Border

Border Patrol agents detain illegal immigrants after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States in McAllen, Texas, on Aug. 7, 2015. The state's Rio Grande Valley corridor is the busiest illegal border crossing into the United States. Border security and immigration have become major issues in the U.S. presidential campaigns. John Moore/Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to visit the U.S. southern border in El Paso, some 800 miles from the epicenter of the surge in illegal immigration in the Rio Grande Valley, has been described by a Texas Democrat as “politically safer.”

Both Republicans and Democrats from border states have been urging Harris for months to visit the U.S.-Mexico border. However, her move to visit El Paso is being viewed on both sides as missing the mark.