The Office of the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has confirmed that she will will head to the US-Mexico border on Friday. This follows weeks of criticism that she hasn't visited the area despite being tasked by the Biden administration with trying to stem the flow of migration from Central America.

The upcoming trip to El Paso, Texas, comes as Harris has been dogged by Republican criticism of her absence at the border after being asked by President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic relations in the Northern Triangle in an attempt to alleviate the tide of migration over the southern border.

In a statement released Wednesday, Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders confirmed the trip, adding that she would be accompanied by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"Earlier this year, the President asked the Vice President to oversee our diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. As a part of this ongoing work, the Vice President traveled to Guatemala and Mexico earlier this month and will travel to El Paso on Friday," the statement read.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Harris' trip is a part of her efforts to address the root causes of migration.

"I will note that I've also said here from this podium, and she has also said that when it was the right time, she may go to visit the border," Psaki said, adding that that the "planning and timing" was done in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

She added, it's "part of the coordinated effort between her office, her work, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, to continue to address the root causes and work in coordination to get the situation under control."

The vice president and her team have been staring down attempts from Republicans to make her the face of the Biden administration's response to the crisis at the border. It's a role that then-Vice President Biden had under Obama.

Still, it put a politician likely to run for president at the center of one of the administration's most divisive issues. In response, her office has repeatedly sought to make clear, both privately and publicly, that she has a laser focus on diplomatic relations and the conditions that push migrants to make the journey and not the politically fraught situation at the US-Mexico border.

(With input from agencies)