Harris heads to southern border looking to flip script on immigration criticisms

Vice President Harris stops in battleground Arizona on Friday to hold a campaign event along the U.S. southern border with Mexico as the Democrat presidential nominee works to turn the issue of immigration and border security from a liability into a strength.

Harris has faced frequent attacks from her Republican opponent, former President Trump, and his allies who argue she’s weak on border security, an issue that many Republicans see as the vice president’s political Achilles’ heel. Harris has faced intense criticism over the surge of migrants across the nation’s southern border during the first three years of President Biden’s administration.

The Trump campaign, on the eve of Harris’ first border visit as a presidential nominee, called it a “political ploy.”

And the former president, speaking with reporters in New York City, claimed that “anything she says tomorrow, you know, is a fraud because she was the worst in history at protecting our country. So she’ll try and make herself look a little bit better. But it’s not possible.”

But Harris, with a stop in Douglas, Arizona, aims to show that she’s better prepared than Trump to tackle the combustible issue of immigration and what Republicans have spotlighted as the crisis at the southern border.

HARRIS LEANS IN ON BORDER SECURITY AND TRUMP RELISHES THE FIGHT

Vice President Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee, is shown at a rally in Glendale, Ariz., on Aug. 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The vice president is expected to speak about how she is pushing what she describes as the toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation, a measure that includes new border agents and technologies to stop fentanyl trafficking.

And she’s expected to reiterate her argument that Trump “has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk.”

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She has repeatedly pointed to a border security bill with some bipartisan support that had been making its way through Congress this year before Republicans turned against the measure after prompting from Trump.

Harris has said that the former president “tanked the bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win an election” and has pledged that “as the president, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”

Former President Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 22, 2024, south of Sierra Vista, Ariz. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Since replacing Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket more than two months ago, Harris has described herself as a former “border state prosecutor” who took on international gangs and criminal organizations behind illegal drug, gun and human trafficking across the border.

The description comes as Harris and her campaign have also spotlighted a tougher stance on border security while still pushing for a pathway to citizenship for some migrants.

“We need a comprehensive plan,” Harris said Wednesday in an interview with MSNBC. “That includes what we need to do to fortify not only our border but deal with the fact that we also need to create pathways for people to earn citizenship.”

Along with the border stop, the Harris campaign is launching a new ad that will play in Arizona and other battleground states that spotlights her past border efforts and plans.

“She put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars, and she will secure our border,” the narrator in the commercial says.

Biden tasked Harris in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in Central American countries. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar” both by the media and some Republicans, although the White House has rejected that description. And the vice president has been pilloried over her role as “Biden’s border czar” by Trump and his allies.

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Trump, as he runs to win back his old job in the White House, is calling for a major crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border and has suggested using police and the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump said Harris was traveling to the southern border for “political reasons.”

“When Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you’re going to remember that on Friday. When she tells you about the border, ask her just one simple question: ‘Why didn’t you do it four years ago?’”

On Thursday, on the eve of the Harris visit, Trump asked, “why would she go to the border now, playing right into the hand of her opponent?” 

“She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would merely ask: ‘Why didn’t she do it four years ago?’” the former president said in New York City.

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Trump has repeatedly charged that the policies of the Biden-Harris administration have allowed millions of people to enter the U.S. illegally.

In June, after the collapse of the bipartisan border security bill, Biden announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials say the U.S.-Mexico border is overwhelmed. Following the implementation of the new rules through executive orders, arrests for illegal border crossings have plummeted.

Polls indicate that immigration and abortion are two of the top issues on the minds of American voters, following the economy and inflation.

And public opinion surveys, including those from Fox News, indicate that by double digits Americans believe Trump would do a better job than Harris handling the issue.

Trump last visited the border during a stop last month in Arizona, which is one of the seven crucial battleground states that will likely determine the winner of the presidential election.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

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