Harris visits US-Mexico border as she looks to challenge Trump on immigration

The vice president is looking to peel voters away from Trump by reminding them of how he opposed a tough border security bill earlier this year

In this screen grab from a television pool camera, Vice President Kamala Harris confers with a US Border Patrol officer along the US-Mexico border in Arizona (Reuters / Pool)

Vice President Kamala Harris made her first visit to the US-Mexico border as a candidate for the presidency to challenge Donald Trump on what has been his signature issue since he first ran for president in 2015.

Harris arrived Friday afternoon at a site along the US border wall in Douglas, Arizona, where she was greeted by a pair of uniformed officers from the US Border Patrol.

The two officers and the vice president chatted as they walked along a path next to the section of the wall, which was constructed during the Obama administration and is not part of the wall built during Trump’s presidency.

Asked what she’d learned from the Border Patrol officials, Harris replied: “They’ve got a tough job and they need, rightly, support to do their job. They are very dedicated. And so I’m here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them. And also thank them for the hard work they do.” 

She is also set to receive a briefing from Customs and Border Protection officials in Texas on US efforts to prevent the introduction of fentanyl into the United States. Harris is later expected to announce support for further restricting how people can claim asylum if they enter the country unlawfully between ports of entry along the border with Mexico.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris talks with John Modlin, the chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, right, and Blaine Bennett, the U.S. Border Patrol Douglas Station border patrol agent in charge, as she visits the U.S. border with Mexico in Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 (AP)

Illegal immigration — particularly from non-white countries — has been a key issue for Trump, who rarely makes a public appearance without engaging in incendiary rhetoric on the subject that often crosses a line into outright racism.

Trump and his Republican allies have sought to attack Harris for the Biden administration’s record on migration and have attempted to brand her as a “failed border czar” because of her work handling diplomacy with countries that, until recently, accounted for a significant portion of the immigrants claiming asylum along the US-Mexico border.

Harris will outline her plan to crack down further on asylum claims and keep the restrictions in place longer compared to the executive order that Biden signed this summer, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Harris had not yet made the announcement. The official briefed reporters aboard Air Force Two en route to Arizona.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris talks with John Modlin, the chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, right, as she visits the U.S. border with Mexico in Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 (AP)

Harris also met with Mayor Donald Huish, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and County Supervisor Ann English, along with Sen. Mark Kelly and Attorney General Kris Mayes. 

Immigration and border security are top issues in Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico and one that contended with a record influx of asylum seekers last year. Trump has an edge with voters on migration, and Harris has gone on offense to improve her standing on the issue and defuse a key line of political attack for Trump. 

In nearly every campaign speech she gives, Harris recounts how a sweeping bipartisan package aiming to overhaul the federal immigration system collapsed in Congress earlier this year after Trump urged top Republicans to oppose it.

“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” Harris plans to say, according to an excerpt of her remarks previewed by her campaign. After the immigration legislation stalled, the Biden administration announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed.

Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen. Harris will also use her trip to remind voters about her work as attorney general of California in confronting crime along the border.

During an August rally in Glendale, outside Phoenix, she talked about helping to prosecute drug- and people-smuggling gangs that operated transnationally and at the border.

With additional reporting by agencies