Harris vows tighter border controls, targets fentanyl smuggling and reforms to fix ‘our broken immigration system’

DOUGLAS (United States), September 28 – Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday visited the US-Mexico border for the first time in her 2024 presidential campaign, calling for tighter asylum restrictions and promising that stopping fentanyl will limit access to US a “top priority”. .”

Harris outlined her plans to fix “our broken immigration system” in Douglas, Arizona, a border city of fewer than 17,000 residents, while accusing her Republican rival Donald Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the impact of immigrants on the American economy. to live.

About 7 million migrants were arrested while illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to government data, a record number that has fueled criticism of Biden and Harris from Trump and his fellow Republicans.

Immigration is a top issue for voters. Arizona is a closely contested election state, with a large population of Latino voters sought by both parties. The country’s porous southern border remains a source of fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.

Harris called for more punitive measures for people who cross the border illegally, following an asylum ban on those who enter illegally, a step Biden took this year that has sharply reduced the number of illegal crossings.

“I will take further action to keep the border between ports of entry closed. Those who unlawfully cross our borders will be apprehended, removed and denied entry for five years,” Harris said.

“We will pursue more serious criminal charges against repeat offenders, and if someone does not apply for asylum at a legal point of entry and instead unlawfully crosses our border, they will not be granted asylum,” she said.

Harris emphasized her goal of a “humane” immigration program and said she would work with Congress to create a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” — hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. They were a priority for Democrats for a decade but were left out of a failed immigration bill that Biden had supported.

“I reject the false choice that suggests we must choose between securing our border or creating an immigration system that is safe, orderly and humane,” Harris said. “We can and must do both.”

In Douglas, Harris spoke with Customs and Border Protection officials and toured part of a border barrier built between 2011 and 2012 during Democrat Barack Obama’s administration, the White House said.

She also received a briefing on CBP’s drug enforcement operations and reviewed the inspection technology used to seize illegal drugs, including fentanyl, the campaign said, noting that border officials stopped more fentanyl at ports of entry in 2022 and 2023 than in the previous five financial years. combined.

Harris was introduced by Theresa Guerrero, whose 31-year-old son Jacob Guerrero died of fentanyl poisoning. She accused Trump of blocking the bipartisan border security bill aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl. The bill was blocked by the Senate in February after Trump urged Republicans to reject any compromise.

Biden and Harris accuse Trump of sidestepping the measure to keep immigration alive as a campaign issue.

Harris said she would revive the legislation, which would create 1,500 Border Patrol agents and other personnel, 4,300 asylum officers, 100 immigration judges and new drug detection technology.

The vice president said she would target the “entire global fentanyl supply chain.” She said China was starting to crack down on fentanyl precursor chemicals but needed to do more.

Fentanyl overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. In 2023, more than 107,000 Americans will die from drug overdoses.

Harris pledged to double funding for prosecuting transnational criminal organizations and cartels, and to modernize America’s screening and vetting infrastructure.

Harris called for more punitive measures for people who cross the border illegally, following an asylum ban on those who enter illegally, a step Biden took this year that has sharply reduced the number of illegal crossings. – Reuters photo

Immigration top problem

Trump and his running mate JD Vance have stepped up their criticism of immigrants in recent weeks, repeating falsehoods about legal Haitian immigrants in Vance’s home state of Ohio and suggesting immigrants commit crimes and steal jobs from American citizens.

Yesterday, Trump blamed Harris for the rising trend of irregular migration.

“The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump said at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would just ask: why didn’t she do it four years ago? It’s a very simple question.”

He also accused Harris of turning small towns in the US into “ruined refugee camps.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 43 percent of voters favored Trump on immigration and 33 percent preferred Harris, while 24 percent didn’t know, chose someone else or didn’t answer .

Harris, a former prosecutor, served as attorney general of California before being elected to the U.S. Senate and then vice president. Her assignment in California included targeting gangs operating on both sides of the border and trafficking in drugs, weapons and people.

Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, a diplomatic issue on which her record is mixed.

Emigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to the United States has caused unrest among voters concerned about what the trend means for the U.S. economy, crime rates and culture. According to the US Census Bureau, the share of US residents born abroad rose by almost a fifth between 2010 and 2023 to 47.8 million. – Reuters