"Why is this administration telling asylum seekers to stay home when we have a moral and legal duty to give those in danger an opportunity to seek refuge."

"Hopefully domestic politics is not a driving force because asylum must operate outside of politics."

Said Lee Gelernt, "a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the administration over its practice of turning migrants away," quoted in "Kamala Harris, With Blunt Language on Border, Forges Immigration Image/The vice president concluded her first trip abroad, a high-stakes trip to Mexico and Guatemala during which she took on the politically volatile issue" (NYT).

Gelernt (and others) object to Harris's advice — to Guatemalans who may be contemplating attempting to migrate to the United States — "do not come." That's the "blunt language" the headline refers to.

Ms. Harris’s team has tried to distance her from the U.S.-Mexico border issue, an acknowledgment of the political baggage it brings to any Democrat with aspirations for higher office. While she has shown a willingness to speak about the causes of migration, Ms. Harris has stumbled when discussing the border.

When pressed by Lester Holt of NBC on Monday about why she wasn’t visiting the border itself, Ms. Harris responded, “And I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”