Donald Trump criticized Kamala Harris for her border security and immigration plans in front of thousands of people in Arizona on Thursday, saying she has made the United States a human “dumping ground.”
Speaking before a packed Mullett Arena in Tempe on Thursday, the former president sought to make immigration the central theme of his speech in the border state.
“Kamala’s immigrant invasion, given to us by gross incompetence, disqualifies her from even thinking about being president,” Trump said.
“We’re like a landfill,” Trump said. “We are like a garbage can for the world.”
Donald Trump criticized Kamala Harris for her border security and immigration plans in front of thousands of people in Arizona on Thursday, saying she has made the United States a human “dumping ground.”
The former president, clearly amused by his new metaphor, admitted that the phrase was new.
“It’s the first time I’ve said garbage can, but you know, it’s a very accurate description,” he continued.
Trump also said President Joe Biden is “not allowed” to say whether he wants to “lock him up” or now, referring to comments the 81-year-old made on Tuesday.
“The whole world is looking at us and seeing these people who don’t deserve to be in any position of authority,” Trump said.
‘Remember, he got – whether you like it or not, I’m not a fan of his – did you see last night?
Did he ruin it? He said lock him up. He – said he was going to lock him up last night. You’re not allowed to do that. He’s such a stupid guy. What a stupid fool. He’s quite a guy.
He then turned his attention back to his opponent.
“She was the Border Czar and she never made a single phone call,” Trump said, suggesting that the vice president did nothing to mitigate the historic flow of immigrants who have crossed into the United States in the last three and a half years.
“No person responsible for so much bloodshed and death on our soil can be allowed to become president of the United States.”
Harris, on the other hand, claims she has been working on the border and says Trump has no intention of fixing it.
“We’re like a dump,” Trump said of the United States under Kamala Harris. “We are like a garbage can for the world”
Migrants, including women and children, prepare to cross the Rio Grande to reach the United States border and seek humanitarian asylum in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
“I reject the false choice that suggests we must choose between securing our border and creating a system that is orderly, secure and humane,” Harris said during a recent trip to the border in Douglas, Arizona, in late September. “We can and should do both.”
Trump, he said, “prefers to address a problem rather than fix it.”
“And the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than political games and his personal political future.”
However, data collected by the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee reveals that between fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2024, there were more than 10.8 million encounters with immigrants.
Under Trump, between fiscal years 2017 and 2020 there were only three million encounters with migrants.
Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris tours the border wall with Border Patrol agents and other personnel (not pictured) near Tucson in Douglas, Arizona, United States, on September 27, 2024.
It was the second time that the vice president visited the border during her term.
Immigration has repeatedly been a top issue for voters this cycle and the former president focused on the issue throughout his speech.
In Arizona, border security and immigration have been found to be the most important issues among voters there, a Center for Arizona’s Future report found.
And recently the former president has seen more favorable polls in the southwestern state.
He RealClearPolitics The average of national presidential polls currently shows Trump with a slim lead of 1.5 points ahead of the Democrat.
Still, many of these polls are so close that they are within the margin of error, meaning the race is a tie.
Trump has taken a small lead in Arizona according to national polling averages
Immigrants crossed regularly at El Paso despite the massive amounts of barbed wire deployed there to keep out illegal crossers.
Having visited the southwestern state nearly every two weeks since August, Arizona has become common ground for the Trump campaign in the final weeks before the election.
Harris has also made several stops there as the election nears completion.