Harris is calling for more immigration enforcement at the border and stricter fentanyl measures

Kamala Harris calls for more punitive measures for people crossing the border illegally, following an asylum ban on those entering the US illegally imposed by President Joe Biden this year

ARIZONA, USA – Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris visited the US-Mexico border for the first time during her 2024 presidential campaign on Friday, September 27, calling for tighter asylum restrictions and promising to stop fentanyl from entering the US if a “top priority”. ”

Harris spoke Friday in Douglas, Arizona, a border town of fewer than 17,000 residents, where she accused her Republican rival Donald Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the impact of immigrants on American life.

Harris called for more punitive measures for people who cross the border illegally, following an asylum ban on those entering the US illegally that was imposed by President Joe Biden this year.

“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.

But Harris also said her policies would pave the way for a humane immigration program.

“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.”

Some 7 million migrants have been arrested while illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, according to government data, a record number that has fueled Trump’s criticism.

But the number of illegal border crossings has fallen sharply since Biden announced the asylum ban earlier this year.

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

Harris 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 a sweeping border security bill that would have stemmed the flow of fentanyl.

Harris said she would target the “entire global fentanyl supply chain” to materially and sustainably disrupt the flow of illicit fentanyl, and called on China to do more to crack down on fentanyl precursor chemicals.

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.

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 were committing crimes and stealing jobs from American citizens.

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. And the country’s porous southern border remains a source of fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.

On Friday, 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 sweeping border security bill, negotiated for months, was blocked by the US Senate in February after Trump urged Republicans to reject any compromise.

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

Harris served as California’s attorney general 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 also 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. – Rappler.com