Vice President Kamala Harris headed to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday. Her first trip to the border since a visit to El Paso in 2021 comes on the heels of a campaign focused on past themes. Illegal immigration.
Harris faces frequent attacks from her Republican opponents. former president trumpand the Border Security Coalition, which argues that she is weak on border security, an issue that many Republicans see as the vice president's political Achilles heel.
“After years of not only ignoring the problem, but helping create it, Vice President Kamala is finally heading to the border,” the National Border Security Council said in a statement. “This is just a box she checked, but it's a slap in the face to the men and women who put their lives on the line every day, and a slap in the face to the working world. Where was she, American people? of?”
Harris heads south of the border to adapt her immigration criticism
This division marks Vice President Kamala Harris and the southern border. (FOX News/Joe Radle/Getty Images))
Harris' campaign points to her past as a prosecutor confronting transnational criminal organizations and argues that her support for bipartisan funding legislation makes her the best candidate for border security.
But Harris has a long history on immigration at the national level.
California Dreamers 2018-2019
As a California senator, Harris was on the far left of the Democratic Party on immigration issues, and in 2018 pressured senators to reject the Trump administration's request for additional funding for migrant detention beds and Border Patrol agents.
In a 2018 letter to senators on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Harris and other senators called for “a costly and ineffective border wall, new deployments of Border Patrol agents, and significant “Reject President Trump's fiscal year 2019 funding request for additional funding.” Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and detention beds. ”
“I urge you to cut government funding. Reckless immigration enforcement The operation is tearing families apart and hurting our economy. ”
Sen. Kamala Harris pictured at a parade in California. (Obtained from Fox Digital)
Harris focuses on border security, Trump enjoys fighting
She also criticized former President Trump's pick to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ronald Vitiello, over whether he had any “awareness” of the similarities between ICE and the KKK.
“Are you aware that there is a perception, especially among immigrants, especially immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America, that ICE operates its power in a way that creates fear and intimidation?” she asked again.
Recently released footage shows Harris shouting “Up in education, down in deportation” at a rally that also featured now-disgraced actor Jussie Smollett. was.
2019 presidential election campaign
Harris has begun her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the 2019 presidential election. Her campaign included promises to expand the policy. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) The executive order provides protection to illegal immigrants brought to the United States as minors.
She said she would eliminate age requirements for applications and create a “parole” program that would use parole powers to put undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship.
She also promised to protect parents of undocumented American citizens and green card holders from being deported by executive order. Overall, her plan was projected to protect more than 6 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
2021: Vice President “Border Emperor”
Harris became vice president in 2021, and her administration quickly reversed many Trump-era initiatives and attempted a moratorium on deportations.
The number of migrants has soared, and Biden told reporters in March that Harris would be in charge of tackling the root causes, such as climate change, poverty and violence, that the administration believes are driving migrants north. spoke.
This immediately led to Harris being criticized by the press and Republicans for “Border Emperor” The White House rejected the title, but she has stuck to it ever since, making her the spokesperson for the crisis along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Summer 2021: The pressure mounts.
Harris, as the White House said her role was more diplomatic than directly related to the border, as numbers surged to record highs in the months following Biden's mission. was immediately pressured to visit the border. Instead, she traveled to Mexico and Guatemala with a tough message for immigrants that angered immigration activists.
“Please don't come. Please don't come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and protect our borders,” she said. “If you come to the border, you'll be turned away.”
Pressure on her to go to the U.S. border continued to mount.
After she claimed that she had been to the border, NBC's Lester Holt told her, “You've never been to the border.”
“And I've never been to Europe,” Harris joked.
Migrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Lukeville, Arizona, Dec. 7, 2023. According to federal sources, Jesús Enrique Ramírez Cabrera entered the country illegally through Arizona in December 2023, was arrested and released to the United States. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Later that month, she traveled to the border in El Paso, Texas, where she was briefed, met with advocates and health care providers, and toured a processing center.
2022: More time needed
Harris will likely not be seen much during the remainder of 2021 and 2022. root cause strategyHowever, private sector efforts to attract investment to address these root causes will continue.
In June 2022, she attended the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles to meet with other leaders and discuss ways to respond to the crisis. During that summit, she announced that $3.2 billion in commitments had been secured from private companies.
She was also criticized for declaring the border secure despite the ongoing crisis and mass releases into the interior.
“We have a secure border, but our immigration system is broken, especially over the last four years, and we need to fix it,” Harris said on NBC.
2023: More records broken
Although Harris made few appearances related to the border crisis in 2023, her private investment strategy continued to bring in additional commitments from companies.
But the crisis is not just in the news, with 2023 setting new records for the sheer number of migrant encounters and numerous disruptions at the border.
In fiscal year 2023, a new record was set with more than 2.4 million encounters, and in December, there were nearly 250,000 encounters in one month.
2024: Bipartisan support for legislation, candidacy for president
The White House continued to reject the “border czar” narrative, but Harris expressed support for a bipartisan Senate agreement that would provide more funding for the border and reduce immigration once a certain threshold is reached. did.
She also supported a number of executive orders by President Biden that implement asylum restrictions and efforts to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are spouses of U.S. citizens.
She has tried to portray herself as tougher on the border than former President Trump.
She is now making a stop in Douglas, Arizona, where she aims to show she is better equipped than Trump to tackle immigration and what Republicans have focused on as a crisis at the southern border.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We need a comprehensive plan,” Harris said in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday. “That includes what we have to do to not only strengthen our borders, but also address the fact that we need to create paths to citizenship for people.”
In addition to border blocking, the Harris campaign is launching new ads highlighting her past border efforts and plans to run in Arizona and other battleground states.
The commercial's narrator says, “She'll put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars and protect our borders.”
FOX News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Get the latest on the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more with Fox News Digital's Election Hub.
