Harris’ border visit sheds light on the House and Senate races in battleground Arizona

Vice President Kamala Harris sought to answer her Republican critics directly on Friday as she made her long-awaited visit to the US-Mexico border, as former President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric on immigration and called for her to resign.

When Air Force Two landed in southern Arizona and Harris toured a stretch of border wall outside Douglas with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, she was faced with the dual task of trying to overcome her own political weakness on immigration and give Democratic candidates a to give impetus. races that will help determine which party controls the House and Senate in Washington.

Harris pledged, if elected, to impose a five-year ban on anyone caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. They would also be denied access to asylum.

“Our system must be orderly and secure,” she said, pledging to “send” more personnel, training and technology to the border, and to “double” the Justice Department staff going after drug cartels and others who are involved in the fentanyl trade.

“They have a tough job and rightly need support to do their work. They are very dedicated,” Harris said of border patrol officers. “And so I’m here to talk to them about what we can continue to do to support them. And also thank them for the hard work they do.”

The Democratic nominee spent ample time criticizing Trump for his record as president on the border and for pushing Senate Republicans to scrap a bipartisan border and immigration package earlier this year. “That is an abdication of leadership,” she said.

The package would have given the president the power to reduce the flow of migrants into the U.S., speed up the asylum approval process, which can currently take years, and expand legal avenues for immigration. It included just over $20 billion to address operational needs and expand capabilities at the southern border.

Harris — who said she would seek “common sense” solutions to immigration as president — noted that it would have “hired 1,500 additional border agents and officers, paid for 100 inspection machines to detect fentanyl, that are killing tens of thousands of Americans,” it would have allowed us to remove those who come here illegally more quickly and effectively.”

“It should be in effect today and delivering real-time results for our country, but Donald Trump botched it,” she said. “Because you can see that he prefers to tackle a problem rather than solve a problem.”

She also seemed to echo Trump’s line of attack that she wants to open the southern border, saying: “I believe we have a responsibility to set and enforce rules at our border. … We must reform our immigration system to ensure that it operates in an orderly manner, is humane and makes our country stronger.”

The government announced during its visit that it would spend $500 million to expand and modernize a border port in the Douglas area.

Combatants in the state’s congressional races have also had to grapple with this issue.

One of several high-profile open Senate seats across the country that will help shape the balance of power in the chamber is in Arizona. Republican Kari Lake, a former news anchor who lost a bid for governor in 2022, is running against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the Tilt Democratic races.

Harris and her improved security footprint landed in the middle of a competitive House race as Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., seeks to fend off former Democratic state Senator Kirsten Engel in a rematch of their 2022 race. Inside Elections ranks this contest as Tilt Republican .

Aaron Cutler, a former senior adviser to Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, said late Thursday that he doubted Harris’ visit would weigh on voters’ minds as they choose between candidates for Congress.

Kim Fridkin, a political science professor at Arizona State University, agreed, writing in an email Friday: “I don’t think one Harris visit to the border will change the Senate and House of Representatives races here.” to influence.”

“In the battle for the Senate, Gallego is ahead of his opponent, unlike Harris versus Trump. Additionally, Gallego has focused on border security since the beginning of his statewide campaign,” she added. “For home races, I don’t think the visit will change the contours of these races. … One visit won’t make a difference, but it could change the narrative in the presidential race. If Harris can articulate her vision and plan for controlling the border to voters, she could close her gap to Trump on this issue.”

None of Arizona’s Democratic congressional candidates would accompany Harris at the border, a White House official said. She was greeted at an area airport by two Democratic officials, including Sen. Mark Kelly, and three local GOP officials.

Republicans have criticized Harris over her lack of border visits since President Joe Biden asked her to address the root causes of illegal migration earlier in his term. Republicans and Trump have dubbed her the administration’s “border czar” in recent months, even though White House officials have said she was never given that title.

Trump began his remarks at an event ostensibly about the economy by claiming that “more than 13,000 convicted murderers” who entered the U.S. illegally “are roaming our streets, all over the country.” He called Harris and Biden “stupid” and accused the Democratic candidate of supporting “open borders.”

Trump cited data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies to make the claim. He cited the figure from a letter that acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner sent to Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, sent, putting the number of “non-incarcerated” noncitizens with a murder conviction on the national docket at 13,099 — a portion of the 662,566 noncitizens on the national docket with a criminal history. An ICE spokesperson confirmed the letter in an email on Friday.

“You can’t have a country like that,” Trump said. “These are tough, tough, cruel criminals. … They dump them in our country. … You can’t have her as president. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She must resign.”

At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Trump said Harris should have canceled her trip, saying “you can’t justify it” about her time as Biden’s point person on illegal migration — or, as he called her, “border czar Harris.” After a court appearance in New York, he said of illegal immigration: “It’s an invasion,” before repeating a list of misleading claims.

A nonpartisan group that keeps a close eye on all things immigration wrote earlier this year that Biden’s number of returning migrants across the US-Mexico border should earn him the nickname “returner in chief,” a play on the informal nickname of former President Barack Obama, namely ‘deporter in chief’. ‘for his record on deportations.

“The 1.1 million deportations since the start of fiscal year 2021 through February 2024 – according to the most recent data available – are on track to match the 1.5 million deportations carried out during President Donald Trump’s four years in office Trump was in power,” said a July 17 report. analysis compiled by the Migration Policy Institute. “By combining deportations with expulsions and other actions to block migrants from entering the United States without authorization, the Biden administration’s nearly 4.4 million repatriations are already more than any presidential term since the administration of George W. .Bush.”

Yet polls show that Trump has an advantage in this area. For example, voters are likely to trust Trump more than Harris to handle immigration, 53 percent to 45 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.

“It’s not that good for them,” Trump said Thursday. “It scores very well for me.”

On the one hand, Harris went there to try to change that. On the other hand, she went there on Friday afternoon when a major hurricane devastated the southern part of the country, ahead of another football weekend.

“The trip to the border is a risky gamble for the vice president and a big opportunity for President Trump, because the trip could refocus national attention on Vice President Harris’s failures as President Biden’s point person for tackling illegal immigration,” Cutler said. “A visit on Friday will not provide a reset. Instead, the American people will wonder, “Why hasn’t she done anything to fix the problem in the last three and a half years?”

Mark Satter contributed to this report.