Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a cringeworthy message to Guatemalans on her first trip abroad since being elected to the White House: “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,” she said on Monday. “Do not come.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki later clarified Harris’ message. “What the vice president was simply conveying is that there’s more work to be done, that we don’t have these symptoms in place yet,” Psaki explained to reporters on Tuesday. “It’s still a dangerous journey, as we’ve said many times from here and from many forums before, and we need more time to get the work done to ensure that asylum processing is where it should be.”

It’s a fair explanation, and far be it from me to lay years of botched immigration policy at the feet of the current administration to fix in a matter of months—which by the way, Republicans appear all too willing to do. But this administration does have an obligation to the kind of transparency the administration of former President Donald Trump simply was not capable of. Harris and President Joe Biden are going to have to do more than assert that there are “legal methods by which migration can and should occur.” Many immigrants know that simply is not the full truth. 

Olayemi Olurin, a New York public defender, said in a Twitter thread she’s been “lawfully in America” since 2008. “I’ve attended high school, college + law school here. I’ve passed + been admitted to the bar,” she said. “I’m a public defender defending peoples constitutional rights. I still have no path to citizenship except marriage. Be honest about immigration.” Olurin said she is sick of the “myth that you can decide you want to live in America and you fill out some paperwork and you’re done … False,” she tweeted. “It is HARD to get to America legally and it’s even harder to stay.”

Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and former staff attorney with the LGBTQ Law Project at New York Legal Assistance Group, tweeted: “That narrative of super educated people easily getting in needs to end. I know friends doing post-docs at Ivy who have trouble getting immigrant visas instead of J-1s. Since when did immigration require a grad degree anyways? We should welcome all regardless of education.”

Sarah Rich, a senior supervising attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement released on Wednesday that “seeking protection from violence and persecution is a fundamental human right, and the right to seek asylum is protected by U.S. and international law.” Rich said Harris’ remarks “fly in the face of the right to seek asylum in the U.S. and indicate a disturbing continuity between the Trump administration and the Biden-Harris administration.” 

Rich added in her statement:

Rep. Raul Ruiz, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told The Hill he understood Harris’ warning as “a compassionate, humanitarian plea because of the dangers of taking the long trek up north … She has a difficult task and she’s very capable of achieving the objective of understanding the root causes of why families are leaving, and put together a comprehensive plan to build hope for people to stay and flourish in their home countries,” he added.

Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University public affairs professor, told the political news website what Harris says “won’t be as important as whether she can put forward an overall solution to the immigration challenges facing the nation … Along the way, there are ups and downs, gaffes and accomplishments,” Zelizer added. “But what she will be evaluated on is the bigger picture: Is immigration handled in a better fashion by the time her term as VP is over?”

RELATED: Poverty, corruption, violence, and climate change are causing increased migration to the U.S.