Harris promises to fix US immigration system, Trump says: ‘This is bad timing’

Washington:

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has pledged to impose tighter security measures at the border and fix America’s broken immigration system as she sought to counter frequent political attacks on the issue from her Republican rival Donald Trump ahead of the November election.

Vice President Harris’ comments came Friday during her visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona.

Despite taking a tough stance on border security, Harris said she also supports a “pathway to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants currently in the US.

“As president, I will work with Congress to finally create a path to citizenship for hardworking immigrants who have lived here for years,” Harris said.

Harris was in Arizona to get a firsthand assessment of the security situation at the southern border.

She criticized former President Trump, saying politicians have refused to come together and fix the broken immigration system.

Illegal immigration is an issue that Americans have become increasingly concerned about in recent years amid record numbers of migrants at the southern border.

“Well, as president, I will put politics aside to fix our immigration system and find solutions to problems that have existed for far too long… These issues have major implications for our nation,” she said.

Harris, 59, will face Trump, 78, in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Noting that the contrast in the 2024 election is clear, Harris said it is a choice between common sense solutions and the same old political games.

“In Donald Trump’s four years as president, he did nothing to fix our broken immigration system. He has not solved the shortage of immigration judges and border agents or created legal avenues of entry into our country. He has done nothing to address our outdated asylum system. And we have not worked with other governments in our hemisphere to address what is clearly a regional challenge,” she claimed.

Harris criticized Trump for wanting to tackle a problem instead of solving a problem.

“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” she said.

As the border state’s former attorney general, Harris noted she understands what security and law enforcement means at the border, prosecuting transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in weapons, drugs and people.

As such, she revealed her approach to “target the entire global fentanyl supply chain” to “significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals from China” and protect Americans from the “unimaginable destruction” it causes.

“On behalf of all the communities in our country that want to see these problems resolved, I say: We cannot accept Donald Trump’s inability to lead. We should not allow scapegoats instead of solutions. Or rhetoric instead of results,” she said.

In his remarks earlier in the day, Trump criticized Harris for having an unsecured border.

“This is bad timing for Kamala to show up at the border today. She hasn’t been there in four years. Today she appears,” Trump said.

Trump said Harris betrayed her oath.

“She allowed our cities to abandon violent gangs. She allowed our American sons and daughters to be raped and murdered by vicious monsters. She had American communities conquered. You go to Aurora, Colorado, where they take over with AK. -47s take over real estate. Kamala has turned cherished small towns into devastated refugee camps,” he said.

“What Kamala Harris did is inexcusable. What she did is a crime. It must be criminal. There is no greater act of disloyalty than destroying the sovereignty of your own nation, and that is what she did. She has ruined our nation. She has ruined our nation,” Trump claimed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)