Amid relentless criticism from former President Trump that he is responsible for rampant illegal immigration, Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday made her first visit to the US-Mexico border since 2021, announcing tougher measures which will be done as president to limit. enter the border.
“The United States is a sovereign country, and I believe we have a duty to set the rules on our borders, and enforce them,” Harris told a crowd in Douglas, Ariz., gathered in a small auditorium on the Cochise College Douglas Campus, where the stage it was flanked by large signs that read, “Border security and stability.” “We are also a nation of immigrants. The United States has been enriched by generations of people who have come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and become part of the American story.
Harris said he would extend the Biden administration’s policy of limiting border access outside official ports.
Earlier in the evening, Harris visited a port of entry less than 10 miles from the campaign event. Two Border Patrol agents walked with him over the towering fence, which was built during the Obama administration. Harris later told reporters that he was grateful for his work.
“He has a difficult job and needs support to do his job. He is very dedicated,” he said. “And I’m here to talk to them about what we can continue to do to support them.”
He advocated for hiring more officers and adding fentanyl detection systems at border entry points.
“I reject the false choice that suggests we must choose between securing the border or creating a safe, orderly and humane immigration system,” Harris said. “We can and we must do both.”
Immigration reform has dogged presidents of both parties for decades.
A bipartisan proposal earlier this year that combined increased funding for border security and foreign aid to Ukraine was seen as a first breakthrough until it was scrapped when Trump urged Republicans to oppose it.
Kamala Harris spoke at the Cochise College Douglas Campus in Douglas, Arizona, on Friday.
(Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
The deal falls short of a comprehensive plan discussed in decades that would overhaul the asylum system and legal immigration process and provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal authorization, including those who arrived as children. Harris on Friday referred to farm workers and immigrants who arrived as children, known as “Dreamers.”
“As president, I will put politics aside to fix the immigration system and find solutions to long-standing problems,” Harris said.
Before Harris’ visit to the border, Trump pointed to reports that there are more than 425,000 convicted criminals in the country illegally but not detained by federal authorities, according to data provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a request by lawmakers. .
This includes more than 13,000 convicted of murder and more than 15,800 convicted of sexual assault, according to ICE data shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas).
Trump said Thursday that 21 million people entered the country illegally in the past four years. He created a bipartisan effort that helped defeat what he called a “bad border bill.”
“This is not a border bill. It is an amnesty bill…,” he said at a press conference in Manhattan. “Luckily this Congress is very smart.”
The bill would not provide a path to citizenship for people without legal status.
The GOP nominee’s appearance at Trump Tower seemed to recall a 2015 campaign announcement there, particularly the reference to other countries deliberately sending criminals to the United States.
The memo included numerous falsehoods, such as saying Harris approved changes to the country’s immigration policy that as vice president he had no control over, and that he was the Biden administration’s “border czar.” He is accused of trying to improve conditions in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to prevent their citizens from fleeing their homeland.
The assignment turned into a political headache for Harris — drawing criticism from the left and the right.
On a 2021 visit to Central America, Harris told would-be migrants that they would be deported if they crossed the border, angering immigrant allies who say they are fleeing poverty, corruption and violence.
“Don’t come,” he said at the time. “You’ll be back.”
On the same trip, Harris laughed off questions in a nationally televised interview about why he had not visited the border as vice president, drawing criticism from critics on the right.
Both political parties are focused on immigration because while the presidential race is very tight in the polls, Trump has a double-digit lead on border security issues. However, that margin has narrowed, as President Biden decided not to run for re-election and Harris gained support for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The border broke records in December, with agents making nearly 250,000 arrests. As the political issue simmered, Biden signed an order in June to limit asylum claims, resulting in a drop at the border, to less than 60,000 in July and August.
Republicans have addressed the issue, with GOP members of Congress filing a resolution that “strongly condemns the Biden Administration and the Border Czar, Kamala Harris, for failing to secure the United States’ borders” a day after the president announced he would not seek re-election.
While some of the claims made by the former president and his allies have been proven false and misrepresented by GOP elected officials, such as allegations that Haitian migrants ate pets in Springfield, Ohio, there is concern among some voters about the impact of an insecure border in the region. the economy, crime and the palpable fentanyl crisis in many communities.
Friday’s visit was Harris’ second in Arizona since he became the Democratic presidential candidate, according to the Harris-Walz campaign. While Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and others have swung through southwestern battleground states, Harris has focused much of his personal campaign in critical states far east, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
Hours before the vice president landed in Arizona, Republicans held a press conference featuring two mothers whose daughters were raped and killed by illegal immigrants and the mother of a teenage son who overdosed on fentanyl. The women criticized Harris for his administration’s immigration policies and his visit to the border close to the election.
“I tried so hard not to cry. We live 1,800 miles from the border,” said Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, the mother of five who was brutally attacked while walking on a bucolic and scenic public road in Maryland. His body was found in a drain pipe.
“No one is safe in America, no one is safe. If you have a sanctuary city in your country, you are not safe,” he said. “They have bused, flown, trained illegal immigrants to every nook and cranny and every small town across the United States.”
That fear is among the reasons the Harris campaign released an ad about immigration in Arizona on Friday, and visited the Southern border less than a month and a half before Election Day. As vice president, he previously visited the region in 2021, when he toured the port of entry and border operations in El Paso.
Mehta reported from Phoenix and Pinho reported from Douglas. Times staff writers Noah Bierman and Andrea Castillo contributed to this report from Washington, DC
