Vice President Mike Pence will visit the Calexico area Monday morning to inspect the construction of a barrier along the U.S.- Mexico border, the White House announced Saturday.
After receiving a briefing on the construction of the border wall from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, Pence is expected to speak to Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol employees at El Centro Station.
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Pence will make his way to San Diego from Los Angeles, where he arrived Saturday afternoon for two political fundraisers and a private tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Following the tour, Pence posted photos and comments about his visit to the laboratory.
The visit comes one week before the launch of NASA's next mission to Mars, dubbed InSight, which is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The mission will be the first to peer deep beneath the Martian surface, studying the planet's interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes, seismic events similar to earthquakes.
InSight will be the first planetary mission to take off from the West Coast, launching from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.
Pence is the chairman of the National Space Council. During the Council's first meeting in 25 years in October, Pence said, "We won the race to the moon a half a century ago, and now we will win the 21st century in space. Under President Trump's leadership and with the guidance of this National Space Council, the United States will usher in a new era of space leadership for our nation that will benefit every facet of our national life.''
