WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris After joining the 2024 race, the former president is preparing to make his first trip to the southern border with plans to attack Donald Trump. on an issue it is the centerpiece of his campaign.
Harris is scheduled to visit the Arizona border town on Friday. A campaign aide said he would highlight Trump’s role in sinking the bipartisan border deal on Capitol Hill this year.
Immigration and border security is a weak spot for Harris. Polls often show him trailing Trump on the issue, and Trump has repeatedly undercut his record under the Biden administration.
In addition to framing Trump as “dangerous,” his campaign wants to highlight his past work on the issue.
“As a former border state attorney general, he took on international gangs and criminal organizations involved in drug, arms and human trafficking, and he has long believed that we need a safe, fair, orderly and humane immigration system. It is completely different from the divisive and dangerous policies of Donald Trump,” a Harris campaign aide said in a statement about the visit.
Harris will talk about “how he pushed through the toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation,” an aide said.
While Harris has discussed border and immigration issues on the campaign trail, he often points to Trump pushing Republicans in Congress. crushing a bipartisan border security bill it would solve many of the issues he criticized.
The measure would have allowed the White House to close the border if too many migrants tried to cross, and it would there is raised a “credible fear” standard for asylum claim interviews, more border agent funding and deportation flights.
“Donald Trump got word of the bill, realized it would solve the problem he wanted to run for, and told them to kill the bill, don’t bring it up for a vote,” Harris said in an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie. Spirit. “He actually killed a bill that could have been a solution because he wants to work on the problem instead of solving it.”
Harris has promised to revive the bill and sign it if elected.
Trump made numerous trips to the southern border during the campaign, making the border and immigration central to his presidential bid. It also has an expiration date derogatory language describing migrants, calling them “animals”, comparing them to the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter, and arguing without justification that they take “Black Jobs”. In recent days he spread lies About Haitian immigrants living legally in Springfield, Ohio.
In his speeches, Trump described Harris as weak on the border. He said on Tuesday’s Truth Social that Harris went to the border “for political reasons.”
“He’s trying to fool the public that he’s done a good job at the Border, but he’s actually destroyed the fabric of our nation,” he said. incorrect statementd number of migrants to enter the country.
Friday’s visit to Douglas, Arizona, will be Harris’ second visit to the southern border during his tenure as vice president. His first visit was to El Paso, Texas in June 2021.
Moment NBC News survey A poll this month found 54% of registered voters thought Trump would do a better job of managing border security and immigration control, compared with 33% who agreed with Harris.
Meanwhile, the poll found that 57% of registered voters think Harris would be better at dealing humanely with immigrants and protecting immigrant rights, compared to 29% that Trump would be better.
NBC News informed in August shelters on the southern border and in some major cities have seen a sharp drop in the number of migrants seeking asylum in the past few months. Border Service officers seized it in June the lowest number of monthly migrants President Joe Biden has crossed the southern border since taking office.