Kamala Harris’s crackdown on migration at the border signals a changing national mood – DNyuz

Kamala Harris underscored her tough stance on migration during a highly anticipated trip Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, aiming to mask a political vulnerability and counter Donald Trump’s core message that Democrats are weak on immigration enforcement .

“The United States is a sovereign nation, and I believe we have a duty to set and enforce rules at our border, and I take that responsibility very seriously,” Harris said Friday evening in Douglas, Arizona, after visiting the border.

Her message reflects a broader view on immigration that reflects a changing national mood and portends a new landscape in the coming years in which imposing stricter border controls will likely be central, regardless of which party wins the 2024 election.

“The priority must be to get the border under control. The numbers are currently very low, but you cannot guarantee that it will remain that way. You also cannot be sure that the courts will not ultimately lift the executive orders that the administration has issued,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the party’s chief negotiator on a major border security package earlier this year. told NBC News in an interview. “I think our ability to pass other reforms into law is made easier by prioritizing border security.”

Harris’ pitch completes a reversal from 2019, when she took more left-leaning positions as a presidential candidate, including supporting a call to reduce illegal border crossings to a civil — not criminal — violation and opposing deportations from the Obama era.

On Friday, Harris highlighted a different side of himself: the tough prosecutor who took on international gangs and organized crime as California’s top law enforcement official.

“The issue of border security is not a new issue for me. I served two terms as attorney general of a border state. I have seen the violence and chaos that transnational criminal organizations cause and the grief and loss resulting from the spread of their illegal drugs,” Harris said, adding that pursuing such gangs would be a priority if she were elected president. are chosen.

She also emphasized that the US “has been enriched by generations of people who have come from all corners of the world to contribute to our country and be part of the American story. And so we must reform our immigration system to ensure that it works in an orderly manner, that it is humane and that it makes our country stronger.”

Harris’ immediate goal is to signal to moderate voters that she will be an aggressive enforcer of the law and control migration.

After weighing in on the issue, Democrats have finally found what they believe is a winning message: Reminding voters that former President Trump pressured Republicans to abandon a bipartisan bill that would have imposed stricter border controls would impose and make it more difficult to obtain asylum.

Harris said that, unlike Trump, she would embrace bipartisan solutions “because I know that transnational gangs coming across the border and trafficking in guns, drugs and people could care less who someone voted for in the last election.”

Trump still has the lead on border clearance – but by less

The Republican Party’s advantage has narrowed since it blocked the bill in May.

In January, NBC News polls showed Trump with a 35-point lead over President Joe Biden among voters asking who they trust more on “securing the border and controlling immigration.” In a new NBC News poll this month, Trump led Harris by 21 points. points. The poll showed a large gender gap, with Trump leading Harris on the cutoff by 41 points among men, by 52 points among white men and by 13 points among non-white men.

“The Republican political advantage on the border has shrunk as their position has been exposed. They don’t want to solve the problem, they just want to complain about the problem, and their inability to support the bipartisan border bill is ultimately hurting them,” said Murphy, who negotiated the bill with Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. ., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

“I’m proud that Democrats, led by the vice president, are finally talking about border security,” he said. “Americans care about this issue, and they want a party that will do something about it, not just talk about it, and Democrats are the only party right now that has a plan to repair the border. Republicans have no plan.”

Harris has said she would bring back that bill and push to pass it if she is elected president.

“Not only will I bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump introduced, I will do more to secure our border and reduce illegal crossings,” she said Friday. “I will take further action to keep the border between ports of entry closed. Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended, removed and banned from re-entering for five years.”

But Lankford said reviving this year’s border security deal is not that simple and accused Harris of being absent on the issue.

“She also said that she and Joe were working on it with conservatives, and that she was never involved in any of the negotiations,” Lankford said in an interview. “Four months of negotiations – she and her staff were never in negotiations all at once.”

“Now she wants to start about it next year. Obviously there are parts that are falling due, like the border wall money,” said Lankford, the top Republican on a key Senate border subcommittee. “Not a bill that you simply pick up and transfer to another year, because it just doesn’t work that way. I think she knows that. It’s a good call, but mechanically speaking it’s not true.”

Harris campaign spokespeople did not immediately comment on Lankford’s claim.

The top Democrat says the border comes first

Changing politics will have an impact on immigration policy, regardless of the outcome of the election. Trump promises mass deportations of millions of people in the US illegally if elected. Harris proposes balancing stricter enforcement with creating new legal pathways for people to become Americans.

Democratic hopes of illegally granting permanent residency to the millions of people in the U.S. have all but faded, having failed under various Democratic trifectas over the past fifteen years. Harris continues to call for pathways to legal status for at least some immigrants, but her campaign declined to say when asked whether she wants to normalize the status of all the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., or a smaller population like young ‘Dreamers’. ‘brought to the country as children.

Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, noted that this year’s border bill, which CHC members viewed as far too generous for the right, was negotiated because Republicans were holding Ukraine’s funding “hostage ”. ”

“There’s no way to know if the border bill will come back, right? If it comes back, I hope there will be a conversation with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about that bill,” she said, arguing it could use revision. “That really is a border law. It is not, in my opinion, an immigration law. I’d like to see more. I would like to see pathways to citizenship added there where real negotiations take place.”

But Murphy said the legalization component will have to take a back seat to enforcement for the foreseeable future.

“I certainly support a path to citizenship, but I think you probably have to first show Americans that you are committed to a rules-based immigration system,” Murphy said. “And that will make it easier to find a path for people living in the shadows of the economy.”

Kamala Harris’s crackdown on migration at the border signals a changing national mood and first appeared on NBC News.