During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, Kamala Harris took a look at Donald Trump’s signature He accused the government of “playing political games” on the immigration issue.
Speaking in the Arizona border town of Douglas, Harris declared that the United States is a “sovereign nation” and a “nation of immigrants,” and said that as president she would tighten controls at the southern border, while also saying, “We have a broken immigration system.” We will work to repair the system.” ”.
“I reject the false choice that we must choose between securing our borders and building a system of order, security, and humanity,” Harris said. “We can and must do both.”
She accused President Trump of derailing a comprehensive bipartisan package to overhaul the federal immigration system, while offering additional resources to hire more Border Patrol agents.
“It goes into effect today and should produce real-time results,” Harris said from a stage surrounded by American flags and large blue posters that read “Border Security and Stability.” “He prefers to deal with problems rather than solve them.”
After the bill failed, the Biden administration announced new rules temporarily suspending asylum processing at the U.S. southern border. Since then, arrests at border crossings between ports of entry have sharply decreased. Arrests in July were below levels not seen since the final months of Trump’s presidency in 2020, but rose slightly in August.
Harris said she would take “further steps to keep our borders closed,” including increasing penalties for those crossing between ports of entry. She emphasized her support for “humane” and “orderly” policies and reminded Arizonans of steps President Trump took during his first term to curb illegal immigration.
“He separated families, tore infants from their mothers’ arms, put children in cages, and tried to end protection for Dreamers,” she said in Douglas, a blue dot in predominantly red Cochise County. spoke.
Before speaking, Harris walked along a stretch of fence built during the Obama administration. In the sweltering 3-degree heat, she was briefed by Customs and Border Protection officials on efforts to stop fentanyl from crossing the border.
She also stopped at the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry in Douglas, across from Agua Prieta, Mexico. The port will be expanded and modernized with grants from the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by Joe Biden.
“They have demanding jobs and understandably need support to do their jobs,” Harris said afterward.
President Trump boasted to supporters at a manufacturing plant in Walker, Michigan, that Harris would be “killed at the border,” and said the Biden administration’s border policies would result in a surge of migrants in his first three years in office. He accused her of inciting him.
“What she did was a crime,” he said. “There is no more dishonest act than to eliminate the sovereignty of one’s own country.”
Harris, who previously served as attorney general for neighboring California, said in her speech that she understands the unique challenges and needs facing border communities like Douglas. She recalled visiting human trafficking tunnels used by smugglers and touted her work prosecuting international gangs and criminal organizations that smuggle guns, drugs and people across borders.
Republicans would rather discuss her latest mission as vice president, formally tasked with addressing the root causes of people coming north from Central America during a time of record immigration. On Friday, Republicans misleadingly accused her of being an absentee “border czar” whose policies led to the border situation.
Arizona voters have consistently ranked immigration, President Trump’s signature issue, as their top concern this election cycle, often second only to the economy. Although a significant share of voters have more confidence in President Trump on immigration and border security, Harris’ campaign believes progress has been made to soften the Democratic deficit on what appears to be one of the biggest vulnerabilities in the election.
The campaign has been running ads on airwaves aimed at softening attacks on President Trump’s immigration record. On Friday, the company ran a new ad highlighting his pledge to hire thousands more border agents and stop fentanyl trafficking and human smuggling in Arizona and other battleground states. “We need a leader with a real plan to resolve our borders,” the voiceover says.
With less than six weeks until Election Day, polls show the race remains close in Arizona. Arizona is one of seven swing states likely to decide the election, and the only state bordering the southern border.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult battleground state poll shows Harris with a slight lead in Arizona, but a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday shows Trump trailing Harris. It was revealed that the gap had increased by 5 percentage points compared to the previous year, indicating a significant improvement from August last year. He trailed the vice president by the same margin.
Biden won Arizona by just over 10,400 votes in 2020, becoming the first Democrat to win the southwestern state since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Attorney General Chris Mays, who accompanied Harris during Friday’s trip, urged Arizonans not to miss the election.
“The race in Arizona may be close, but I’d like you to take a break from that,” Mays said. In 2022, Democrats won by 280 votes.
