Harris Vows to Tighten Border Security in Bid to Counter Trump
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to take additional steps to prevent border crossings between ports of entry and ramp up prosecutions of repeat offenders as she sought to address one of her biggest political vulnerabilities in the race against Republican Donald Trump.
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Harris on Friday made her first visit to the southwest border since becoming the Democratic party’s nominee — a bid to neutralize an election issue which polls show is a top concern for voters and where they prefer Trump’s approach.
Her address highlighted the political tightrope facing her, as she argued for both strengthening border security while providing legal pathways to citizenship for migrants already in the country — a priority for many voters on the left — and sought a draw a stark contrast between her approach and Trump’s.
“The United States is a sovereign nation, and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them,” Harris said in Douglas, Arizona. “We are also a nation of immigrants.”
“I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane,” she added. “We can and we must do both.”
Harris said that if elected she would take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry and that those who cross US borders unlawfully would be removed and barred from reentering for five years. She also vowed to pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators and bar those who do not make asylum requests at legal points of entry and who cross the border illegally from receiving asylum.
“While we understand that many people are desperate to migrate to the United States, our system must be orderly and secure, and that is my goal,” Harris said.
Arizona is a crucial border and battleground state likely to determine the election outcome and where communities have been strained by the migrant crisis. Harris is visiting Arizona as part of a western swing that will also take her to Nevada, part of a bid to shore up her standing among Latino voters.
Harris’ actions would make it harder to lift the asylum restrictions put in place by President Joe Biden to deal with the migrant surge, according to a campaign official who detailed the vice president’s plans ahead of her address.
Harris will propose an additional step that will require border encounters to fall to a lower threshold than 1,500 before relaxing asylum restrictions in place, the official said.
Trump Contrast
Harris sought to lay the blame for the immigration crisis directly on Trump, saying that he had “tanked” a bipartisan bill to surge resources to the border because “he prefers to run on a problem, instead of fixing a problem.”
“In the four years that Donald Trump was president, he did nothing to fix our broken immigration system,” Harris said.
And she excoriated him over his rhetoric on immigration.
“He is still fanning the flames of fear and division,” Harris said. “We should not permit scapegoating instead of solutions.”
Biden and Harris have rebuked Trump for his language on immigration, including saying that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and for unfounded claims that Haitian migrants were eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats in an Ohio town.
Trump has sought to pin the blame for the crisis on Harris, labeling her the “border czar” and highlighting incidents of violent crime committed by migrants or where they are suspects. While Harris did hold a portfolio that included addressing the root causes of migration from some Central American countries earlier in the administration, other officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have held more direct responsibility over the border.
The former president derided Harris earlier Friday at a campaign event in Michigan, saying Harris is only going to Arizona and speaking about migration because she is “getting killed on the border.”
Trump has vowed that if elected he will finish building the border wall, bring back his travel ban that barred people from predominantly Muslim countries and institute mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
Polls show voters trust Trump more on immigration, with a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey this month finding he has a 14-point advantage over Harris among voters across seven swing states, including Arizona, on the issue. In Arizona, voters trusted him by 11 points over Harris on immigration. Overall, the poll shows Harris leading Trump 50% to 47% among likely voters in that state.
Trump won Arizona in 2016 but lost it narrowly to Biden in 2020 by fewer than 11,000 votes. This year, the state also hosts a key Senate race as Democrats look to defend their hold of the upper chamber.
Fentanyl Crackdown
Harris also vowed to make it a “top priority” to disrupt the flow of fentanyl across the border. That includes surging support to law enforcement for more personnel and technology, including 100 new inspection systems that can detect fentanyl and the chemical tools used to make it and by doubling resouces for the Department of Justice to extradite and prosecute transnational criminals.
And she vowed to hold China “to their commitment to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals.”
The vice president touted her own background as as attorney general of California — noting it was also a border state — and saying her team helped target drug trafficking operations, including opioid pill mills, and that she had seen firsthand the “heartbreak and loss” from illicit drugs.
Earlier in the day, Harris toured a portion of the border and spoke with border officials. She also stopped at the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry in Douglas, where she received a briefing from Customs and Border Protection officials, including on the agency’s drug enforcement operations.
“They’ve got a tough job,” Harris told reporters. “I’m here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them.”
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove, María Paula Mijares Torres and Hadriana Lowenkron.
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