Vice President Kamala Harris made her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as the Democratic nominee for president, visiting Douglas, Arizona and giving a speech promising a hard line on illegal immigration while taking shots at former President Donald Trump’s policies.
Addressing an enthusiastic audience at Cochise County College, two miles from the southern border, Harris said “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. While we understand that many people are desperate to migrate to the United States. Our system must be orderly and secure.”
In a show of bipartisanship, she pledged to assert a more balanced approach and work with lawmakers in both parties, including adopting “common sense” strategies to address border woes.
“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 said.
Theresa Guerrero, whose son died of fentanyl poisoning, introduced Harris, who promised to improve detection technology at ports of entry and double the personnel and resources for prosecuting criminal organizations that traffic migrants.
“We will make sure that our ports of entry, including airports and seaports, have additional state-of-the-art technology to detect fentanyl and the chemical tools used to make it,” Harris said. “I will also double the resources for the Department of Justice to extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations and the cartels.”
Harris added, “The United States is a sovereign nation, and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them. And I take that responsibility very seriously. We are also a nation of immigrants. The United States has been enriched by generations of people who have come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and to become part of the American story.”
In a similar vein, to cheers of “They’re American in every way,” Harris pledged to make DREAMers citizens. Harris rejected a “false choice” between enacting border security or humane immigration, asserting, “We can and we must do both.”
Harris visited border patrol officials along the border earlier in the day and was briefed on efforts to fight drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations She then made a stop at the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry where she was briefed on efforts to prevent fentanyl from being smuggled into the state.
As the 2024 race looms, immigration is emerging as a key issue again — something polls have shown has nudged Trump into a slim lead in Arizona, which just happens to be one of those battlegrounds.