Vice President Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border with Border Patrol Tucson Sector chief John Modlin in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2024.
Rebecca Noble/AFP
DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Vice President Harris walked along the U.S. border with Mexico on Friday alongside a stretch of border wall built during the Obama administration, talking with border officials about their work.
It was a photo op meant to illustrate that she supports border security — one of the biggest concerns voters have about Harris — and to try to defang criticism from her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Later, she embraced a mother whose son died of a fentanyl overdose, and made her most extensive remarks to date on how she would address border security and immigration reform.
“I will reach across the aisle and I will embrace common sense approaches and new technologies to get the job done,” she said.
Vice President Harris greets members of the U.S. Border Patrol as she visits the U.S. border with Mexico in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2024.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Harris focused most of her remarks on fentanyl smuggling
Most polls show that Trump has an edge over Harris when it comes to border security — although it’s not as big as the one he had over President Biden when he was the Democratic candidate. Trump had made cracking down on immigration a signature issue when he was in office, and has revived it for his campaign for another term.
But Harris said Trump failed to address the shortage of immigration judges and border agents, problems with the asylum system, and that he also focused on separating families and punishing migrants.
Harris reiterated that if she wins the election, she would try to revive a bipartisan agreement that would have provided more funding to hire more border agents, and buy more equipment to detect fentanyl. Harris and Biden have blamed Trump for pressuring his allies in Congress to block that bill.
She said her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general gave her experience to tackle the fentanyl problem.
“I’ve seen tunnels with walls as smooth as the walls of your living room, complete with lighting and air conditioning, making very clear that it is about an enterprise that is making a whole lot of money in the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings,” she said.
“Stopping transnational criminal organizations and strengthening our border is not new to me, and it is a long standing priority of mine. I have done that work, and I will continue to treat it as a priority when I am elected president of the United States,” Harris said.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 22, 2024 south of Sierra Vista, Ariz.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
Trump says Harris should have done more during Biden’s term
Harris last visited the border in 2021, when she went to El Paso, Texas. This time, she chose a critical swing state for her trip. Trump narrowly lost Arizona in 2020 and has been working hard to win it back. Polls show it is a very tight race.
In a speech in New York before Harris’ trip, Trump attacked Harris for not doing more to address border security as vice president, calling her a “border czar” responsible for the surges in migration during Biden’s term.
The “border czar” moniker refers to an assignment Biden gave to Harris early on in her time as vice president to work with Central American leaders on economic and societal issues that were driving tens of thousands of people to try to seek asylum in the United States.
Harris has said her work on the root causes of migration got results. But she did not highlight it in her speech on Friday, and has not talked about it on the campaign trail.
Harris also talked about immigration laws and regulations
Harris said she would take more steps to address asylum rules — and penalties for people who don’t follow them.
“If someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum,” she said. “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.”
Vice President Harris walks on stage at Cochise College in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Biden earlier this year took executive actionto try to accomplish some of the measures in the failed border security bill. Unlawful border crossings have since dropped by more than 50%, the White House said, and are currently at their lowest level in four years.
Under Biden’s policy, asylum claim processing is suspended when the seven-day average of unauthorized crossings exceeds 2,500. That suspension stays in place until the seven-day average drops to 1,500 per day for at least two weeks.
But Harris would propose rules that would see that 1,500-per-day bar drop lower still, a campaign official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of Harris’ remarks. Harris did not get into details about that proposal during her speech.
She said she would work toward pathways to citizenship for “hard-working immigrants who have been here for years,” including people brought to America as children by their parents, and farm workers.
Efforts to address broader immigration laws have repeatedly failed to gain traction in Congress, and Harris did not say what she would do to get around one of the most intractable problems in Washington.
