Harris to visit US-Mexico border on Friday, White House says

WASHINGTON >> Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S. border with Mexico on Friday, the White House announced Wednesday. It is her first visit to the politically contentious southern border since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.

During her trip to Douglas, Arizona, Harris plans to talk about border security and how she is pushing through “the toughest bipartisan plan for border security in a generation,” a campaign aide said, adding that the plan includes new border agents and technology to stop fentanyl.

“As a former attorney general of a border state, she took on transnational gangs and criminal organizations that traffic drugs, weapons and people, and she has long believed that we need an immigration system that is safe, fair, orderly and humane — a stark contrast to the divisive and dangerous policies of Donald Trump,” the campaign official said.

Harris served as California’s attorney general before being elected to the U.S. Senate and then vice president in 2020. She visited the border in 2021.

Trump, Harris’ Republican rival, has made illegal immigration a key issue in his campaign for the Nov. 5 election. The former president has repeatedly criticized Harris over border policy.

Harris told CNN last month that she would again push for comprehensive border legislation that would limit migration into the United States, vowing to “enforce our laws” against border crossers.

Immigration remains a top issue for voters. Fifty-four percent of respondents to a recent New York Times/Siena poll thought Trump would do a better job on this issue, while 43% said Harris would.

Senate Republicans in February rejected a bipartisan border bill that Trump had urged them to reject. President Joe Biden and Harris have accused Trump of wanting to keep the border a campaign issue.