By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Guatemala's new liberal president, Bernardo Arévalo, at the White House next week to discuss bolstering democracy and addressing the "root causes" of migration from Central America, officials told Reuters.
Harris has led the U.S. administration's efforts to address the causes of a spike in migration from countries in Central America to the United States, and drawn criticism from Republicans for becoming a failed "border czar."
Her meeting with Arévalo on March 25 was designed to underscore U.S. support for the new Guatemalan leader after the anti-corruption crusader's own inauguration was delayed in January by opponents seeking to weaken his authority.
Immigration has become a major topic in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and one that Republicans have sought to wield as a weapon of vulnerability against Biden and his fellow Democrats.
The president has worked to turn that around, placing blame on former President Donald Trump, his rival for the White House, for torpedoing a plan in Congress to cut migrant crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Harris has focused her part of the immigration portfolio on tackling core reasons that people are leaving countries such as Guatemala, and her meeting with the new president will touch on that, her office said.
"The Vice President and President Arévalo will discuss additional efforts to address the drivers of irregular migration from northern Central America," Harris' spokesperson Kirsten Allen said in a statement.
Areas of discussion would include civilian security, "good governance," human rights and labor protections, gender-based violence, and economic opportunity, she said.
Arévalo has pledged to bring sweeping changes to Central America's most populous nation to tackle violence and the rising cost of living, key drivers of migration to the United States.
A White House official said Harris had been involved in ensuring there were free and fair elections in Guatemala.
In December the U.S. government imposed visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalan nationals, including 100 lawmakers out of the 160-member unicameral Congress, accused of undermining democracy in Central America's most populous country.
Bolstering democracy at home is also a key theme of Biden and Harris' re-election campaign. The president has accused Trump, who sought to overturn Biden's victory in the 2020 election, as threatening U.S. democracy.