A laughing matter: US VP Harris laughs when asked if she plans to visit border amid refugee crisis

US President Joe Biden has largely avoided the border refugee crisis and now the humanitarian crisis seems to have turned into a laughing matter for his administration after Vice President Kamala Harris laughed when asked if she had any plans to visit the crisis-riddled border.

Harris dismissed a reporter by letting out a laugh after she was asked whether she had plans to visit the southern US border, which is now overwhelmed by an influx of Central and South American migrants, in particular unaccompanied migrant children.

The US vice president laughed off the humanitarian crisis as she spoke to reporters after arriving at Jacksonville International Airport in Florida on Air Force One. When asked about a potential trip to the border, she answered, “Um, not today” before the cackle.

Biden stands accused of inciting a chaotic migrant rush on the US border with Mexico after he vowed to unwind many of the immigration policies of former president Donald Trump when he assumed office in January.

Harris’ comment came on the same day photos were released showing squalid conditions at holding centers for unaccompanied migrant children detained at the border.

These photos were taken within the last few days. There are eight pods with eight cells each in the facility. At any given moment there are an average of 3,000 people in custody here. The illegal immigrants are separated by age or physical size depending on room. pic.twitter.com/kFmZgTG2Iv

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 22, 2021

More than 10-thousand migrant kids, including many of those forcibly separated from their parents, are now in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

5,200 others are also stranded in Border Patrol facilities not designed for long-term custody, US media reports said.

The Biden administration has resisted calling the situation a crisis. Pressed on the issue again at a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the child migrant debacle a “circumstance.”

An American reporter said Trump's "zero tolerance" toward immigrants had turned into Biden-era "zero access" for journalists.

The administration denied press credentials to reporters who sought to visit border facilities this week. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the Biden administration’s lack of transparency “outrageous and unacceptable.” 

“It is unacceptable that the press is not allowed to join our delegation so that they can inform the American people about what is happening at our southern border,” Cruz wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday.

The Biden administration has been sharply criticized by both fellow Democrats and Republicans for the handling of the refugee crisis.

Democrats censured the president for using notorious Trump-era detainment facilities in Texas to house migrant children.

Democrats had used the issue of detainment facilities to accuse Trump of putting “kids in cages.”

Critics on social media blasted Harris for laughing off the border refugee crisis. 

Kamala Harris, putting children in cages is NO laughing matter...https://t.co/C8gVMclzd4

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) March 22, 2021

Trump hit out at Biden over the border migrant crisis, predicting that, "They will be coming up by the millions," fanning the flames after weeks of relative silence since he moved to Florida.

Trump had earlier accused Biden of inspiring a "spiraling tsunami" at Mexico border, saying Biden’s reversal of his immigration policies led to "mass incursion" into the United States.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said he saw hundreds of children packed into a room, and "fought back tears" as he listened to a 13-year-old migrant girl who was distraught after being separated from her grandmother.

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