Harris visits US southern border as Trump focuses on immigration
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A poll in August found that 43 per cent of voters favoured Donald Trump on immigration and 33 per cent favoured Vice-President Kamala Harris.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Vice-President Kamala Harris will visit the US-Mexico border for the first time in her 2024 presidential campaign on Sept 27, as her Republican opponent Donald Trump doubles down on the message that immigrants pose a danger to America.
Ms Harris, a Democrat, is visiting Douglas, Arizona, a border town of fewer than 17,000 people, with a message ripped from Trump’s playbook, hoping to sell voters on ways she can improve the status quo.
“She has long believed we need an immigration system that is secure, fair, orderly and humane, a stark contrast from the divisive and dangerous politics of Donald Trump,” a Harris campaign aide said.
Ms Harris intends to discuss plans for the “toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation”, the aide said.
Some seven million migrants have been arrested illegally crossing the US-Mexico border under Ms Harris and President Joe Biden, according to government data, a record high number that has fuelled criticism from Trump.
Those border crossings have dropped sharply
Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, have increased their criticism of immigrants in recent weeks, repeating falsehoods
Immigration is a top issue for voters. Arizona is a closely contested election state, with a high population of Latino voters sought by both parties.
And the nation’s porous southern border remains a source of fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the US.
On Sept 27, Trump blamed Ms Harris for the rising trend of irregular migration. “The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump said at Trump Tower.
“She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border,” he said. “We would merely ask: Why didn’t she do it four years ago? It is a very simple question.”
A wide-ranging border security Bill that took months to negotiate was blocked by the US Senate in February after Trump pressed Republicans to reject any compromise
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found that 43 per cent of voters favoured Trump on the issue of immigration and 33 per cent favoured Ms Harris, while 24 per cent either did not know, chose someone else or refused to answer.
Ms Harris was California’s attorney-general before she was elected to the US Senate, and then as vice-president. Her California remit included targeting gangs that operate on both sides of the border and traffic in drugs, guns and people.
Mr Biden also tasked Ms Harris with dealing with the root causes of migration from Central America, a diplomatic issue on which her record is mixed.
Emigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to the US has created unease among voters concerned about what the trend means for the US economy, crime rates and culture.
The share of American residents born abroad rose by nearly a fifth to 47.8 million from 2010 to 2023, according to the US Census Bureau. REUTERS
