Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) scolded Vice President Kamala Harris after she gave a speech in Guatemala, discouraging residents from migrating to the United States. 

"I want to emphasize that the goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at home,” Harris said during a press conference in the Central American country according to BBC. “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States — Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come.”

“The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border,” she added. “There are legal methods in which migration can and should occur, but one of our priorities will discourage illegal migration.”

AOC then took to Twitter to share her thoughts on Harris’ message to Guatemalans, saying she was disappointed in the Vice President’s words. 

“First, seeking asylum at any US border is a 100% legal method of arrival,” she wrote in a tweet. “Second, the US spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.”

“It would be helpful if the US would finally acknowledge its contributions to destabilization and regime change in the region," she said in a follow-up tweet. “Doing so can help us change US foreign policy, trade policy, climate policy, & carceral border policy to address causes of mass displacement & migration.”

This is not the first time AOC has been vocal about immigration policy, which, instead of using the term “border crisis,” suggested calling the debacle a “climate crisis” or an “imperialism crisis,” as well as a “carceral crisis.”

“So much of our 'national conversation; which is actually not a conversation about immigration is driven by people who could not care less about immigrants,” she began in a video responding to Instagram questions. "So often people wanna say, ‘Why aren’t you talking about the border crisis?’ Or ‘why aren’t you talking about it in this way?’ Well, we’re talking about it; they just don’t like how we’re talking about it.” 

The 31-year-old continued in her argument, saying, “our immigration system is based and designed on our carceral system” and “our solutions need to be rooted in foreign policy.”

Harris traveled to the country to meet with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to address the surge in illegal immigration, which Giammattei feels the Biden administration is responsible for.

According to the New York Post, upon arrival in Guatemala on Monday, Vice President Harris was met with protesters who held signs reading, “Kamala, TRUMP WON,” and “Kamala Go Home.”  

After Trump, who was a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, left office and Biden took over, Giammattei said that the change in government also changed the message from the United States. 

"The message changed to, 'We are going to reunite families and we are going to reunite children,'" he said, CBS News reports, referring to the families being separated in the U.S.– Mexico border detention centers. 

He also pointed out that following the administration transition and days after Biden rescinded Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, human traffickers, also referred to as “coyotes,” began to corral thousands of children to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The very next day the coyotes here were organizing groups of children to take them to the United States," he added. 

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Southwest Land Border Encounters have spiked tremendously, with 178,622 encounters for the month of April, compared to 17,106 in April 2020. A large number of the migrants are from what is known as the “Northern Triangle,” which consists of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

"We asked the United States government to send more of a clear message to prevent more people from leaving,” Giammattei said. 

Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, factors including two hurricanes, domestic violence and climate change have contributed to the rise of Northern Triangle immigration. 

"Mostly people want to stay in Guatemala. They want to be in their homes. They don't want to take a very expensive trip to the United States. So they try internally in the country to migrate internally looking for jobs," Mary McInerney, country director for Save the Children, told CBS News.

"More than anything, it's down to basics, not having food," she said. "Any of us, I would go wherever I had to go as a mother to ensure that my children had something to eat." 

In an effort to find feasible solutions, Giammattei said that Guatemala should be taken more seriously to help combat illegal immigration.

"There is a mistake being made in the United States. They have always looked at us like their backyard. That's the mistake. We are the front yard," he said. "And if the front yard is bad, how will the house be? If you all take care of your front yard, how will your house be?"

Alexandria Ocaso-CortezGuatemalaillegal-immigrationImmigration-policyKamala Harris