By Trevor Hunnicutt
DOUGLAS, Arizona (Reuters) -Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the primary time in her 2024 presidential marketing campaign on Friday, calling for tighter asylum restrictions and vowing to make stopping fentanyl from getting into the U.S. a “top priority.”
Harris outlined her plans to repair “our broken immigration system” in Douglas, Arizona, a border city of fewer than 17,000 individuals, whereas accusing her Republican rival Donald Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the influence of immigrants on American life.
Some 7 million migrants have been arrested crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally throughout President Joe Biden’s administration, in line with authorities knowledge, a document excessive quantity that has fueled criticism of Biden and Harris from Trump and his fellow Republicans.
Immigration is a high problem for voters. Arizona is a carefully contested election state, with a excessive inhabitants of Latino voters sought by each events. The nation’s porous southern border stays a supply of fentanyl, a number one explanation for drug overdoses in the USA.
Harris known as for extra punitive measures for individuals crossing the border illegally, following an asylum ban for these getting into illegally, a transfer Biden took this 12 months that has sharply diminished unlawful crossings.
“I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry. Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years,” Harris mentioned.
“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,” she mentioned.
Harris emphasised her aim of a “humane” immigration program, saying she would with Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” – tons of of hundreds of individuals introduced into the U.S. illegally as youngsters. They had been a precedence for Democrats for a decade however had been ignored of a failed immigration invoice that Biden had backed.
“I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane,” Harris mentioned. “We can and we must do both.”
In Douglas, Harris spoke to Customs and Border Safety officers and considered a part of a border barrier constructed between 2011 and 2012 in the course of the administration of Democrat Barack Obama, the White Home mentioned.
She additionally obtained a briefing on the CBP’s drug enforcement operations and considered inspection know-how used to grab unlawful medication, together with fentanyl, the marketing campaign mentioned, noting that border officers stopped extra fentanyl at ports of entry in 2022 and 2023 than within the earlier 5 fiscal years mixed.
Harris was launched by Theresa Guerrero, whose 31-year-old son Jacob Guerrero died from fentanyl poisoning. She accused Trump of blocking the bipartisan border safety invoice geared toward stemming the move of fentanyl. The invoice was blocked by the Senate in February, after Trump pressed Republicans to reject any compromise.
Biden and Harris accuse Trump of killing the measure to maintain immigration alive as a marketing campaign problem.
Harris mentioned she would revive the laws, which might add 1,500 Border Patrol brokers and different personnel, 4,300 asylum officers, 100 immigration judges and new drug detection know-how.
The vp mentioned she would goal the “entire global fentanyl supply chain.” She mentioned China was beginning to crack down on fentanyl precursor chemical substances however wanted to do extra.
Fentanyl overdoses have surged to change into the main explanation for demise for Individuals between the ages of 18 and 45. Over 107,000 Individuals died from drug overdoses in 2023.
Harris pledged to double funding for the prosecution of trans-national legal organizations and cartels, and modernize U.S. screening and vetting infrastructure.
IMMIGRATION TOP ISSUE
Trump and his working mate JD (NASDAQ:) Vance have elevated their criticism of immigrants in current weeks, repeating falsehoods about authorized Haitian immigrants in Vance’s house state of Ohio and suggesting that immigrants are committing crimes and stealing jobs from U.S. residents.
On Friday, Trump blamed Harris for the rising development of irregular migration.
“The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump mentioned at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would merely ask, Why didn’t she do it four years ago? It’s a very simple question.”
He additionally accused Harris of turning small cities within the U.S. into “blighted refugee camps.”
A Reuters/Ipsos ballot final month discovered that 43% of voters favored Trump on the problem of immigration and 33% favored Harris, whereas 24% both didn’t know, selected another person or didn’t reply.
Harris, a former prosecutor, was California’s legal professional normal earlier than being elected to the U.S. Senate after which vp. Her California remit included concentrating on gangs that function on each side of the border and visitors in medication, weapons and folks.
Biden tasked Harris with coping with the foundation causes of migration from Central America, a diplomatic problem on which her document is blended.
Emigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to the USA has created unease amongst voters involved about what the development means for the U.S. economic system, crime charges and tradition. The share of American residents born overseas rose by practically a fifth to 47.8 million from 2010 to 2023, in line with the U.S. Census Bureau.
