Kamala Harris visited the U.S. border with Mexico on Friday for the first time as a Democratic presidential candidate to respond to criticism of her record on immigration.
The vice president toured a section of the wall in Douglas, Arizona, with Customs and Border Protection officials and discussed their efforts to combat trafficking.
His visit comes on the same day that staggering figures reveal that there are 600,000 criminal immigrants in the United States.
During his trip, he announced that he would not only maintain President Joe Biden’s broad crackdown on asylum if he wins the White House, but that he would implement even stronger measures.
Harris toured the border wall with Border Patrol agents near Tucson, Arizona
It will make it more difficult to lift emergency authority by requiring the average number of border crossings to decline further – below the current level of 1,500 – before the closure can be lifted.
The crossing slowed after the Biden administration announced rules barring migrants from receiving asylum when U.S. officials deemed the southern border overflowing.
In her comments she will also attack Donald Trump for putting his political interests ahead of a public solution, repeating her criticism of him for pressuring his allies in Congress to kill a border security bill because he feared that if the legislation succeeded , would hurt Donald Trump. his presidential campaign.
The goal of his visit is to address his politically vulnerable issue head-on.
Trump and his fellow Republicans have criticized Harris for months over border policy and the high number of migrant crossings.
It was her first visit to the border as a presidential candidate and the first since 2021.
Now he will try to turn the situation around and take control of the matter.
Trump preemptively attacked her visit Thursday during a news conference in New York, when he questioned her decision to travel there.
‘Why would he go to the border now, playing into his opponent’s hands?’ asked.
‘She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would just ask: ‘Why didn’t you do it four years ago?’ he said.
Harris visited a 2,000-mile section of the border in Douglas, Arizona, a key battleground state. She met with border agents and was briefed on the situation.
It was her first visit to the border as a presidential candidate and her first since 2021, when President Joe Biden tasked her with finding the root causes of migration.
Republicans have dubbed her the “border czar,” a title her team disputes.