Harris said she would go further than reviving the failed bipartisan border bill if elected president.
DOUGLAS, Ariz.—Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.–Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona, on Sept. 27 to address the nation’s illegal immigration crisis.
Harris called for tightening restrictions on asylum as former President Donald Trump continues to lead on the topic of immigration among many of the nation’s voters, according to polls.
“Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from reentering for five years. We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators, and if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum,” Harris said, promising to implement this policy if elected.
The current administration’s record on immigration, including more than 8 million encounters along the southwest border with Mexico alone since January 2021, has been a focal point for both Trump and other Republicans campaigning this year.
Additionally, on Sept. 25, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent a letter to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) detailing how, as of July 21, more than 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal histories were on ICE’s national docket, of which 435,719 are convicted criminals.
While President Joe Biden signed a proclamation on June 4 to suspend asylum requests from illegal immigrants once 5,000 per day had crossed the border, he also rescinded many of Trump’s immigration policies on his first day in office, including one that forced asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico until receiving a court date from U.S. immigration.
Trump has promised to restore his administration’s border policies, complete the wall along the southern border, “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,” and increase penalties for illegal border crossings, among other proposals.
He also visited the border in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, on Aug. 22 to highlight the issue.
During a press conference on Sept. 26, Trump returned to calling Harris Biden’s “border czar.”
“Kamala Harris will be visiting the southern border that she has completely destroyed,” Trump said. “Why would she go to the border now, playing right into the hand of her opponent?”
Early in his term, Biden made Harris his administration’s point person on the root causes of migration. Republicans, political pundits, and members of the media have described it as a “border czar” position responsible for all border security, but her role was to figure out long-term ways to stem migration from three countries in Central America.
The project involved advocating for private-sector investments in the region in an effort to create jobs and decrease the impetus for locals to leave the area for the United States. Even so, the influx of migration has persisted since.
On Friday, Harris also touted her efforts prosecuting transnational gangs as California attorney general, a common theme in her campaign speeches and television ads.
Harris, like Trump, also emphasized the critical threat of fentanyl flowing into the United States across the southern border. The highly addictive and deadly opiate claimed more than 70,000 lives in 2023 alone.
She promised to increase law enforcement funding and training, including 100 new inspection systems for detecting the drug hidden inside vehicles, to limit its flow through ports of entry. Harris also said she would double the Justice Department’s resources to “extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations and the cartels.”
She targeted China for being the source of fentanyl’s precursor chemicals and pledged to crack down on the companies responsible. Harris also advocated reforming lawful pathways to citizenship.
These calls for action go further than her usual campaign remarks on immigration, which have thus far been mostly limited to hammering Trump for telling Senate Republicans to oppose the bipartisan border bill. She has repeatedly promised to revive the legislation if elected and sign it into law, but that would require congressional support from the GOP.
The small city of Douglas—with a population of roughly 16,000—has a Democratic majority in an otherwise Republican-dominated Cochise County. It is close to Agua Prieta, Mexico, a busy port of entry into the United States. Harris said the Biden administration is currently processing a half-a-billion-dollar investment in modernizing and expanding Douglas’s port of entry.
“As your president, I will protect our nation’s sovereignty, secure our border, and work to fix our broken system of immigration. And I will partner with Democrats, Republicans, and independents to do it,” Harris said.Several Democrats who support the vice president told The Epoch Times that border security and immigration reform are top concerns.
“I want to hear about the immigrants that are coming over,” said Veronica Garcia of Douglas. “Do they have sponsors? Are they on their own? Are we going to be supporting them? That’s my concern.”
“I think they should limit [immigration].”
Garcia said she prefers Biden for re-election, but she supports Harris during the transition.
“We need some young blood,” Garcia said.
Having experienced border crossings in her neighborhood, Olga Santana of Douglas agreed with her friend.
“I live three streets away from the fence. If they’re going to pass, they’ll do it probably late at night,” Santana said, and believes there should be limits on immigration.
Despite a decreasing number of illegal crossings from Mexico into Arizona in 2024, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said the border is still “in turmoil.”
“There’s no doubt about it. We see the tragedies,” Dannels told The Epoch Times.
Dannels said that he and Harris met to discuss border security before the rally, and she promised to commit to the sheriffs in border communities if she is elected.
“We’re holding her to it if she gets elected,” Dannels said.
Alex, a Harris supporter from Tucson, said that the border issue is difficult to discuss given the complexity of the issue.
He doesn’t think that sanctuary policies are a good idea.
“Most [immigrants] you come across actually have court dates in order to determine whether they’re going to be citizens or not,” Alex said.
“I don’t think that [sanctuary status] would be a good idea, but most of the time, when they do get their court date, they disperse into other areas.”
Sherry, who lives in Tucson and plans to vote for Harris, said she supports legal immigration and believes illegal immigrants should not be allowed to stay in the country.
“Come through the front door—not the back door. I don’t care who you are or what your situation is. Come through the front door,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.