Vice President Harris will stop in battleground Arizona on Friday to hold campaign events along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, where Democratic presidential candidates are working to turn immigration and border security issues from negative to positive.
Harris has come under frequent attack from her Republican opponent, former President Trump, and his allies, who claim she is weak on border security, an issue many Republicans see as the vice president's political Achilles heel. are. Harris has faced intense criticism during the first three years of President Biden's administration over the surge in migrants crossing the southern border.
The Trump campaign called it a “political ploy” on the eve of Harris' first border visit as a presidential candidate.
But with her stop in Douglas, Arizona, Ms. Harris aims to show she is better equipped than Mr. Trump to tackle immigration and other challenges that Republicans have focused on as a crisis at the southern border.
Harris focuses on border security, Trump enjoys fighting
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Harris attends a rally in Glendale, Arizona, August 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The vice president will talk about how he is pushing for what he calls “the toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation,” including new border agents and technology to stop fentanyl trafficking. It is expected.
President Trump is expected to repeat his assertion that he “talks a lot about securing the border, but he's not actually walking the border.”
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He has repeatedly pointed to the border security bill that passed Congress this year with bipartisan support before Republicans opposed the bill at President Trump's direction.
Harris said the former president “rejected a bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win elections,” and vowed that “as president, I will restore the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”
Former President Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Sierra Vista, Arizona, on August 22, 2024. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Since making Biden her top 2024 Democratic nominee more than two months ago, Harris has positioned herself to confront the international gangs and criminal organizations behind illegal drug, gun and human trafficking across the border. He has described himself as a former “border state prosecutor.”
The explanation comes as Harris and her campaign seek a path to citizenship for some immigrants while also spotlighting a tougher stance on border security.
“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 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading diplomatic efforts to address the “root causes” of migration in Central American countries. This led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by both the media and some Republicans, although the White House rejected that description. And the vice president has been insulted by Trump and his allies for her role as “Biden's border czar.”
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President Trump, seeking to regain his old White House job, has called for a major crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border and proposed using police and the military to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants. are.
At a campaign event in North Carolina on Wednesday, President Trump said Harris was traveling to the southern border for “political reasons.”
“When Kamala talks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you remember that on Friday. When she talks about the border, ask her one simple question: 'Why didn't you do that four years ago?'”
And President Trump said the Biden-Harris administration's policies are allowing millions of people to enter the United States illegally.
In June, after a bipartisan border security bill failed, Biden announced rules that would bar migrants from receiving asylum if U.S. officials claim the U.S.-Mexico border is under control. After the new regulations came into effect through executive order, arrests for illegal border crossings decreased sharply.
Immigration and abortion are the two issues that American voters care most about, after the economy and inflation, according to polls.
And polls, including those from Fox News, show that Americans are by double digits more likely to believe that Trump will do a better job of addressing the issue than Harris.
President Trump last visited the border last month when he stopped in Arizona, one of seven key battleground states that will likely determine the winner of the presidential election.
FOX News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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