Vice Presidential Pool Reports of April 14, 2021

VP pool report #1 — gathering

Good morning from the North Lawn. Pool is gathering ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ virtual meeting with outside national security experts on immigration and the Northern Triangle, per her published schedule.

Pool will be in the room for VP’s opening remarks/brief spray at the top of the meeting and will send along attendees and color once they’re provided.

VP pool report #2 — background/attendees

VP’s office passed along some background info and a list of meeting attendees:
In her role overseeing diplomacy towards Mexico and Northern Triangle nations, Vice President Harris will lead a virtual roundtable at 10:00am today with experts who will offer assessments and recommendations for the region.

Issues likely to be covered include the root causes of migration, humanitarian assistance, economic development, climate resilience, transparency, and good governance.

Participants include the following individuals - in addition to the Vice President and Ambassador Nancy McEldowney, National Security Advisor to the Vice President:

• Dan Restrepo is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan policy institute. Restrepo served as the principal advisor to President Barack Obama on issues related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council.

• Vicki Gass is Senior Policy Advisor for Central America at Oxfam and has been working on Central American social and economic justice issues since 1984, including local organizing in El Salvador.

• Andrew Selee has been President of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan institution that seeks to improve immigration and integration policies through fact-based research, opportunities for learning and dialogue, and the development of new ideas to dress complex policy questions, since August 2017.

• Lisa Haugaard, Co-director of the Latin America Working Group, has led advocacy efforts on human rights issues and U.S. policy towards Latin America for a coalition of human rights, faith, labor and nongovernmental groups for over 20 years.

• Geoff Thale is the President at the Washington Office on Latin America, a leading research and advocacy organization advancing human rights in the Americas. He follows hemispheric trends as well as U.S. policy toward the region, working across WOLA’s multiple program areas.

• Carolina Herrera is Natural Resources Defense Council Manager of Green Finance and Climate Change. Herrera’s work focuses on clean energy and sustainable development in Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Chile.

• Jason Marczak is Director of the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. He joined the Atlantic Council in October 2013 to launch the Arsht Center and set the strategic direction for its Latin America work.

VP pool report #3 — meeting begins/opening remarks/pool escorted out

VP was already seated in her ceremonial EEOB office when pool entered at 10:08am ET.

Highlights from her opening remarks:

VP said she was "looking forward" to today's discussion, focusing on the core causes of migration in the Northern Triangle.

Her work is "informed" by basic principles and beliefs:
1) most people don't want to leave their homes, where they have family and are familiar with culture/language. When they do it's to flee harm or because there is no opportunity to meet essential needs

2) there's an important four-letter word: "hope..." Looking at the NT, the US has an opportunity to provide people with "some hope that if they stay at home, hope is on the way"

She added that the work admin is doing in the Northern Triangle won't fix problems overnight... economic resiliency, climate reform, water policy, food sustainability, fixing corruption... it's about assessing what "we can do about economic development" in the region

"There is great work that is already happening in our initiative that includes reaching out to her allies at the UN"

"We are convening this group of experts today because you all have been working for years in this region..."

Responding to a question from your pooler, VP said she does not currently plan to visit the souther border but that she is looking forward to an upcoming visit to Mexico and Guatemala

"The President has asked Sec. Mayorkas to address what is going on at the border... I have been asked to address the root causes, similar to what" President Biden did as VP

She added that she has spoken to the president of a Guatemala... "I've probably said too much" ... and that she is "happy" to take her first trip to the Northern Triangle soon, including stops in Mexico and Guatemala

Wranglers escorted pool out of the meeting at 10:16 am ET.

VP pool report #4 — full quotes from Q&A

Apologies for the delay, Technical problems sunk my performance, but passing along the full quotes from VP's questions. Special thanks to the CBSN team for coming through in the clutch.

Q: Madam Vice President, will you visit the Southern Border? Do you have a trip planned or will you plan a trip in the future if the situation with migration doesn't resolve itself?

A: "So, as I mentioned to the experts, the President has asked Sec. Mayorkas to address what is going on at the border, and he has been working very hard and is showing some progress because of his hard work. I have been asked to lead the issue of addressing the root causes, similar to what the then-vice president did many years ago, but I will tell you that these are not issues that are going to be addressed overnight in terms of the root causes issue. A large part of our focus is diplomatic in terms of what we can do in a way that is about working with these countries. For example, I have talked with the president of Mexico, the president of Guatemala. — I'm probably saying too much — but we have plans in the work to go to Guatemala as soon as possible given all the restrictions in terms of COVID and things of that nature. But these are areas of focus for a very important and good reason. We must address the symptoms and that is what is happening with the team of folks working on the border, led by Ali Mayorkas, but we also have to deal with the root causes, otherwise we are just in a perpetual system. Our goal is to deal with the root causes, and I'm happy, looking forward to be travelling for what will be, hopefully, my first trip to the Northern Triangle, stopping first in Mexico and then Guatemala sometime soon."

Q: "Madame Vice President how do you evaluate 'success?' This has been a problem for many years"

A: "There are many metrics, and I'm happy to follow up with you after I talk to the experts also, but I agree with you. We have to agree on how we will assess our impact. But let me be clear, people who've been working on this for decades will tell you, it will not be obvious overnight. The work we are going to have to do will require a commitment that is continuous, that we institutionalize with our partners and that's the work that I'm prepared to do, which is to begin that process of meaningful work knowing that we are going to have to have a long-term strategy and it will take some time to see the benefits of that work. But it will be worth it.

Pool asked a few other questions that were inaudible, but we were ushered out without responses from VP.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesdays!