Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.–Mexico border during a campaign stop in the critical battleground state of Arizona as immigration remains a major issue in the 2024 presidential election.
Harris visited Douglas, Arizona, about 120 miles southeast of Tucson on Friday.
The vice president delivered remarks after she walked along a part of the border wall and received a briefing from Border Patrol officials.
Harris said that there should be rules that are enforced at the border but also noted that America is “a nation of immigrants.”
She called for “clear, legal pathways” for those who want to come to the United States and pledged to help create asylum centers in their home countries to ensure an orderly process.
Harris said if illegal immigrants try to enter the United States without going through the asylum process, they will be barred from crossing.
She promised to give more resources to support border patrol agents and reminded supporters that she helped raise the rate of overtime pay for border patrol agents.
She said that the Biden administration supported the toughest and fairest set of bipartisan border security reforms in decades but that Congressional Republicans voted twice against them.
The Democratic presidential nominee said that Biden’s executive action reduced unlawful border crossings which are now lower than three and a half years ago. The actions were designed to take effect only when the border is overwhelmed, according to the White House.
Harris once again targeted Trump for his role in blocking that bipartisan border deal in Congress earlier this year.
“It was endorsed by the border patrol union and should be in effect today and producing results in real time,” Harris said. “But Donald Trump tanked it.”
She pledged to bring it up again in Congress and said she would proudly sign it into law if reelected.
Trump, on the other hand, argued that the bipartisan border deal was weak and ineffective.
Harris once again touted her experience as attorney general of the border state of California in prosecuting transnational criminal organizations for trafficking guns, drugs, and human beings. She pledged more resources to detect fentanyl at ports of entry and promised to double the resources for the Department of Justice to prosecute transnational organizations.
Trump’s Response
Former President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that Harris should cancel her press conference at the southern border amid new data about the border. According to Tom Homan, director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 13,000 illegal immigrants convicted of murder entered the country during the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump blamed Harris for what he called the “worst border crisis” in history during a press conference on Friday.
The 45th president outlined examples of how he believes Harris failed to keep the border secure. Harris terminated 93 of Trump’s executive orders that were destined to make the border safer, according to the 45th president. She also canceled his “Remain in Mexico” policy, Trump said. Harris also stopped policies aimed at preventing asylum fraud and canceled Title 42, he said.
Towns are being destroyed by the migrant crisis, according to Trump. He specifically cited the Haitian immigrant influx in Springfield, Ohio.
Battleground
A new statewide poll shows that Trump leads Harris by six points in the swing state of Arizona, 48 to Harris’ 42 percent, according to the USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll.
A Pew Research poll shows that about six-in-10 voters say immigration is very important to their vote—a nine-percentage point increase from the 2020 presidential election.