Mike Pence to meet with ICE officials in Houston during Texas visit Friday

Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Texas on Friday for a series of stops that now includes an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Houston.

A White House official says Pence will make a late morning visit to ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit in Houston, where he will get a briefing from senior leadership and then address officials to "thank them for holding the line for our nation's security." Pence added the stop to his Texas trip amid a recent surge of Central American migrants trying to enter the United States, which has prompted President Donald Trump to threaten to shut down the border.

On Wednesday, another Trump administration official, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, was in El Paso to begin a three-day border tour ending in California.

Pence was already set to visit Houston on Friday to give a speech at Rice University about the unrest in Venezuela. Later Friday, he is heading to College Station, where he will participate in an event about the vice presidency at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Pence will be joined there by two of his predecessors, Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle.

Pence's trip Friday will be his first to Texas since October 2018, when he visited the state to campaign in the midterms. Trump is set to come to Texas next week to raise money for his re-election campaign in Houston and San Antonio.

Abby Livingston contributed to this story.

Disclosure: The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and Rice University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.