Current:Home > reviewsHarris plans to campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico to show strength on immigration -EliteFunds
Harris plans to campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico to show strength on immigration
View
Date:2025-04-17 20:46:39
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign tries to turn the larger issue of immigration from a liability into a strength and hopes to counter a line of frequent, searing political attacks from former President Donald Trump.
Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the trip but insisted on anonymity on Wednesday to confirm details that had not been announced publicly.
Trump has built his campaign partly around calling for cracking down on immigration and the southern border, even endorsing using police and the military to carry out mass deportations should he be elected in November. Harris has increasingly tried to seize on the issue and turn it back against her opponent, though polls show voters continue to trust Trump more on it.
Just how important immigration and the border are ahead of Election Day was evidenced by Trump wasting little time reacting to word of Harris’ trip. He told a rally crowd in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Harris was going to the border “for political reasons” and because “their polls are tanking.”
“When Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you’re going to remember that on Friday. When she tells you about the border, ask her just one simple question: “Why didn’t you do it four years ago?”
That picks up on a theme Trump mentions at nearly all of his campaign rallies, scoffing at Harris as a former Biden administration “border czar,” arguing that she oversaw softer federal policies that allowed millions of people into the country illegally.
President Joe Biden tasked Harris with working to address the root causes of immigration patterns that have caused many people fleeing violence and drug gangs in Central America to head to the U.S. border and seek asylum, though she was not called border czar.
Since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Harris has leaned into her experience as a former attorney general of California, saying that she frequently visited the border and prosecuted drug- and people-smuggling gangs in that post. As she campaigns around the country, the vice president has also lamented the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at Trump’s behest.
Harris has worked to make immigration an issue that can help her win supporters, saying that Trump would rather play politics with the issue than seek solutions, while also promising more humane treatment of immigrants should she win the White House.
In June, Biden announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen.
Despite that, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released this month found that Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. The poll also found that Republicans are more likely to care about immigration.
___
Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
veryGood! (97)
Related
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- Why The Challenge: World Championship Winner Is Taking a Break From the Game
- Growing Number of States Paying Utilities to Meet Energy Efficiency Goals
- 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed' chronicles Nan Goldin's career of art and activism
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- ICN Expands Summer Journalism Institute for Teens
- Have you tried to get an abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned? Share your story
- Frail people are left to die in prison as judges fail to act on a law to free them
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- What does the science say about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?
Ranking
- Friday the 13th luck? 13 past Mega Millions jackpot wins in December. See top 10 lottery prizes
- FDA authorizes the first at-home test for COVID-19 and the flu
- Taylor Lautner “Praying” for John Mayer Ahead of Taylor Swift’s Speak Now Re-Release
- House Bill Would Cut Clean Energy and Efficiency Programs by 40 Percent
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Wildfire smoke blankets upper Midwest, forecast to head east
- Avalanches Menace Colorado as Climate Change Raises the Risk
- Woman, 8 months pregnant, fatally shot in car at Seattle intersection
Recommendation
Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
New York City Is Latest to Launch Solar Mapping Tool for Building Owners
How to help young people limit screen time — and feel better about how they look
Texas Gov. Abbott signs bill banning transgender athletes from participating on college sports teams aligned with their gender identities
What to watch: O Jolie night
Keystone XL, Dakota Pipeline Green-Lighted in Trump Executive Actions
Elle Fanning's Fairytale Look at Cannes Film Festival 2023 Came Courtesy of Drugstore Makeup
Sydney Sweeney Knows Euphoria Fans Want Cassie to Get Her S--t Together for Season 3