Harris will visit a U.S. border patrol facility during her trip to El Paso, Texas

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris addresses partners engaged in public health efforts to encourage more people to get COVID-19 vaccinations during a "Month of Action" event at the South Court Auditorium in the White House in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the El Paso, Texas, central processing center, which is a U.S. Customs & Border Protection Facility, and meet migrants during her visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, spokesperson Symone Sanders said.

This will be the first time Harris will visit the border since becoming the vice president and taking a lead role in immigration issues.

FILE PHOTO: People walk past U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents after crossing the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in El Paso, Texas, U.S., April 20, 2021. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

The administration inherited "a broken and inhumane immigration system," Sanders said during a call with reporters on Thursday. "The previous administration's policies led to chaos at the border, family separation, inhumane conditions, dismal diplomacy towards and with Central America."

Sanders said the vice president's trip to Guatemala and Mexico earlier this year was about addressing the root causes, and "the border visit tomorrow is about the effects."

Harris, who visited the U.S.-Mexico border many times as a senator and attorney general from California, was assailed by Republicans when she visited Mexico and Guatemala this month.

The trip to El Paso, which was announced a day earlier, appeared to be a result of increasing pressure on her to make the high-profile trip.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)