Harris heads to the southern border to flip the script on immigration criticism

Vice President Harris stops in battleground Arizona on Friday to hold a campaign rally along the U.S. southern border with Mexico as the Democratic presidential candidate works to turn the issue of immigration and border security from a liability into a strength.

Harris has faced frequent attacks from her Republican opponent, former President Trump, and his allies who say she is weak on border security, an issue that many Republicans see as the vice president's political Achilles heel. Harris has faced intense criticism over the surge of migrants across the country's southern border during the first three years of President Biden's administration.

The Trump campaign called it a “political ploy” on the eve of Harris' first border visit as a presidential candidate.

And the former president, speaking to reporters in New York City, claimed: “Everything she says tomorrow is a fraud because she was the worst in history when it came to protecting our country. So she'll try to stand up a little bit better. But it's not possible.

But Harris wants to show with a stop in Douglas, Arizona, that she is better prepared than Trump to tackle the explosive issue of immigration and what Republicans have spotlighted as a crisis at the southern border.

HARRIS is focused on border security and Trump is enjoying the fight

Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is shown at a rally in Glendale, Arizona on August 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The vice president is expected to talk about pushing forward with what she says is the toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation, a measure that includes new border patrol agents and technology to stop the fentanyl trade.

And she is expected to repeat her argument that Trump “has talked big about securing our border, but he's not doing it.”

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She has repeatedly pointed to a border security bill that had bipartisan support and was considered in Congress this year before Republicans turned against the measure at Trump's request.

Harris said the former president “rejected the bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win an election” and has promised that “as president, I will bring back the border security law that killed Donald Trump.”

Former President Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border, south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, on August 22, 2024. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Since replacing Biden on the Democratic 2024 ticket more than two months ago, Harris has described herself as a former “border prosecutor” who took on international gangs and criminal organizations behind illegal drug, weapons and human trafficking stuck across the border.

The description comes as Harris and her campaign have also highlighted a tougher stance on border security while still pushing for a path to citizenship for some migrants.

“We need a comprehensive plan,” Harris said in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday. “That includes what we need to do to not only fortify our border, but also deal with the fact that we need to create pathways for people to gain citizenship.”

Along with the border shutdown, the Harris campaign is launching a new commercial that will run in Arizona and other battleground states highlighting its previous border efforts and plans.

“She put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars and will secure our border,” says the narrator in the commercial.

Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to lead diplomatic efforts to address the “root causes” of migration in Central American countries. This led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by both the media and some Republicans, although the White House has rejected that label. And the vice president has been pilloried by Trump and his allies for her role as “Biden’s border czar.”

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As Trump races to win back his old job in the White House, he is calling for a massive crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border and has suggested using police and the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

At a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump said Harris was traveling to the southern border for “political reasons.”

“When Kamala talks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you remember this on Friday. If she tells you about the border, just ask her one simple question: 'Why didn't you do this four years ago?'”

On Thursday, on the eve of Harris' visit, Trump asked: “Why would she go to the border now and play right into her opponent's hand?”

“She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to repair the border. We would just ask, 'Why didn't she do this four years ago?'” the former president said in New York City.

Trump has repeatedly accused that the Biden-Harris administration's policies have enabled millions of people to enter the United States illegally.

In June, after the bipartisan border security bill failed, Biden announced rules barring migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials say the U.S.-Mexico border is overcrowded. After the implementation of the new rules through executive orders, the number of arrests for illegal border crossings fell sharply.

Polls show that immigration and abortion are two of the most important issues for American voters, after the economy and inflation.

And public opinion polls, including those from Fox News, suggest that Americans, by double digits, believe Trump would do a better job of tackling the problem than Harris.

Trump last visited the border during a stop last month in Arizona, one of seven crucial battlegrounds likely to decide the winner of the presidential election.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

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