Harris calls for tougher border security, immigration reform in Arizona

Vice President Harris pledged to sign a new version of the failed bipartisan Senate border deal at a campaign event in Douglas, Ariz., on Friday, touting a law enforcement vision of border management and panning former President Trump for politicizing the issue.

In her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in three years, Harris told supporters at Cochise College Douglas Campus that she would further strengthen the asylum restrictions that have played a part in reducing border crossings since May.

“It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades," Harris said. "It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union, and it should be in effect today, producing results in real time right now for our country. But Donald Trump tanked it. He picked up the phone and called some friends in Congress and said, stop the bill, because, you see, he prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem, and the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games and their personal political future."

“And so even though Donald Trump tried to sabotage the border security bill, it is my pledge to you that as president of the United States, I will bring it back up and proudly sign it into law.”

Harris also proposed a 5-year bar on reentry for people who cross the border between ports of entry as well as heightened criminal penalties for repeat border crossers.

But Harris also pledged to work toward immigration reform among other measures by improving the asylum system and granting a path to citizenship for longtime undocumented residents.

“We need clear legal pathways for people seeking to come into our country, and we must make our current system work better. For example, it can take years for asylum claims to be decided. Well, this is a problem we can solve, including by hiring more asylum officers and expanding processing centers in people's home countries, and as president, I will work with Congress to create, at long last, a pathway to citizenship for hard, working immigrants who have been here for years, for years,” she said.

Harris, who was preceded at the podium by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, delivered her remarks at a campaign event on Friday evening in Arizona, a time when the East Coast has mostly checked out for the weekend.

Harris was introduced by Teresa Guerrero, a native Arizonan who told the audience that her son Jacob died of accidental fentanyl poisoning.

“When I heard what Vice President Harris had to say at the Oprah town hall, I knew she was going to be a fighter for me, for Jacob and for families like ours, who have lost our loved ones. Vice President Harris understands what fentanyl has done to families and to kids in this country,” said Guerrero.

“That's why she backed the bipartisan border deal, the one Trump tanked, that would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl, and it's why she's here in Douglas, a town that my husband grew up in, and where we have so much family.”

Harris’s message was crafted for a border state with a Senate race where Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is running far ahead of GOP nominee Kari Lake, while neither Harris nor Trump has managed to get a clear lead in the state.

“I think this is for Arizona. They want to play there. They want to win,” said Kristian Ramos, a Democratic strategist.

Kelly touted the bipartisan infrastructure law, which expanded Douglas ports of entry to separate personal and commercial traffic, a unique border issue that’s usually overlooked on a national stage.

“[The border] creates opportunities, opportunities with cross-border trade and exchange that helps fuel the economy here and across our entire state,” said Kelly.

“But here's the thing, it also creates some challenges. And we know that. But border communities and border states like Arizona deserve leaders who are focused on solving those challenges.”

Harris also touted the expansion of border crossings in her remarks, as well as increased overtime pay for Border Patrol agents.

Most polls show Harris lagging behind Trump when it comes to immigration – a recent Ipsos poll found that 44 percent of voters said Trump has a better plan on immigration than Harris, who got the nod from 33 percent of respondents.

In Arizona, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released Friday found Trump with a 6-point lead in the state. The Decision Desk HQ average of polls has Trump ahead by 0.8 percent in Arizona.

Harris has tried to make up that difference by portraying Trump as opportunistic on the border, often using the defunct bipartisan Senate border deal as a cudgel.

Hayes also pushed that message, driving home the idea that Trump and Republicans have sought to benefit from an image of a dangerous and chaotic border, a portrayal that often irks border communities.

“And I don't need to tell you, but the alternative could not be worse. Donald Trump and JD Vance do not care about fighting for a safe America. They said ‘no’ to securing the border because they thought it would help them politically. On every issue, from the economy to the border, they've made clear that they are in it for themselves, not for you,” said Mayes.

Harris also used Trump’s record on immigration as an attack line.

“In the four years that Donald Trump was president, he did nothing to fix our broken immigration system. He did not solve the shortage of immigration judges. He did not solve the shortage of border agents. He did not create lawful pathways into our nation. He did nothing to address an outdated asylum system, and did not work with other governments in our hemisphere to deal with what clearly is also a regional challenge,” she said.

Harris’s immigration policy prescriptions were the most detailed of her presidential campaign so far.

Still, her defense of the Senate deal is a double-edged sword: Harris has successfully sold the idea that Trump scuttled the deal because he believed it would work, but the deal’s asylum restrictions remain divisive among Democrats.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) remain opposed to the deal, which was crafted behind closed doors without the group’s input.

“If this bill is going to come in any form, it has to go through the CHC first,” said CHC Chair Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) in a recent interview with The Hill.

The bipartisan deal provided for tough limitations on asylum for migrants who cross the border between ports of entry; the Biden administration implemented many of those restrictions via executive fiat in June, and is reportedly planning on making those limits permanent before the end of President Biden’s term in office.

The asylum restrictions, coupled with harsh immigration law enforcement in Mexico, have resulted in much lower border crossings, but immigrant advocates say those lower numbers have come at the cost of increased human rights violations.

In the Tucson Border Patrol Sector, where Douglas is located, Border Patrol apprehensions fell to 11,992 in August – the lowest number since January 2021 — from a peak of 80,184 in December.

Crossings at legal ports of entry in the sector, including Douglas’s Raul H. Castro Port of Entry, have risen since 2021, but remained relatively stable during fiscal year 2024, registering 3,759 encounters in August.

Encounters at ports of entry include migrants who apply for humanitarian programs and those who have made appointments through the CBP One app, but not immigrants and non-immigrant foreign nationals crossing the border with visas.

Harris earlier Friday visited the Raul H. Castro facility for a briefing on stopping fentanyl, and talked to two Border Patrol agents along a section of border wall that was built under former President Obama’s watch in 2012.

Republicans attempted to pre-empt Harris’ remarks publishing a letter addressed to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Patrick Lechleitner.

The letter contained data on the number of foreign nationals in the United States who are either convicted or are pending criminal charges, including those detained by ICE and those at large.

According to Lechleitner, there are 425,431 foreign national convicts and 222,141 foreign nationals pending criminal charges not detained by ICE.

“We’ve known for far too long that the Biden-Harris border crisis poses a direct threat to Americans. The truth is clear—illegal immigrants with a criminal record are coming into our country. The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, and it should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that hide behind sanctuary policies,” said Gonzales in a statement.

The ICE data does not refer only to undocumented immigrants, nor people who have entered the United States during the Biden administration, rather to the number of people among the population of more than 46 million non-citizens who have either been convicted of or charged with crimes.