Harris campaign considers trip to US southern border amid polling concerns – LocalNews8.com

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

(CNN) — Campaign officials are weighing a possible visit by Vice President Kamala Harris to the U.S.-Mexico border during his stay in Arizona on Friday as the campaign tries to bridge a rift with former President Donald Trump over immigration, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

Immigration played a major role in the 2024 presidential election. Democrats, who have struggled with the border crisis for years, have tried to flip the script on Republicans after the GOP blocked a bipartisan border measure earlier this year.

According to one of the sources, some Harris campaign officials are still concerned about the gap in the polls, which shows Trump ahead on this issue. But they also see an opportunity to narrow the gap and counter GOP attacks on her presence at the border.

Harris previously visited the border when she was vice president, citing her work as a senator and attorney general in a border state.

According to another source, no final decision has been made yet.

CNN reached out to Harris’ campaign team for comment.

Friday’s visit to Arizona also comes as border crossings are at their lowest since 2020 — and follows new polls showing Trump leading in the swing state.

U.S. officials have complained about the recent months of low border crossings, citing a recent executive order restricting asylum access at the U.S. southern border. Meanwhile, Trump continues to campaign against the Biden administration’s handling of border security.

Republicans have falsely claimed that Harris is the “border czar,” portraying her as solely responsible for managing the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s a title Harris’ team has been trying to shed since President Joe Biden tasked her in 2021 with tackling the root causes of migration.

Harris’ campaign aides believe she has a case on immigration, using the failed bipartisan border measure to paint Trump as someone who doesn’t take the border seriously and pointing to her time as California’s attorney general, where she took on transnational criminal gangs.

Last week, Harris criticized Trump’s immigration proposals, saying his controversial policies were a stark contrast to her Republican rival.

“As we fight to lead our nation to a better future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will continue to try to pull us back. We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have promised to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation in American history,” she said.

“Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How is that going to happen? Huge raids, huge detention camps. What are they talking about?” she added.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.