Kamala Harris makes first visit to southern border as Democratic nominee
DOUGLAS, Ariz. – Too little, too late?
Vice President Kamala Harris made her first visit to the US-Mexico border as the Democratic presidential nominee Friday to hastily announce measures meant to mitigate the ongoing border crisis fewer than 40 days before election day — despite having been the White House border “czar” for more than three-and-a-half years.
Harris, 59, announced that if elected the 47th president, she would improve on an executive order announced by President Biden in June that barred migrants from applying for asylum when an average of 2,500 illegal migrants crossed the border for seven consecutive days.
Under the Biden order, the emergency measure would be lifted when the average number of crossings dipped below 1,500 — which critics noted would still allow 1.8 million migrants into the US each year, even if strenuously enforced.
Harris said her policy would make it more difficult to lift the emergency authority by mandating that the average number of crossings needed to reopen the border drop “below the current number of 1,500.”
The Trump campaign slammed the trip to Douglas, Ariz. as a last-ditch effort by Harris to salvage her image on the issue.
“Why didn’t she fix it almost four years ago?” Trump asked reporters during a news conference at Trump Tower Thursday.
“She’s got no plans, got no talent, got no ability to do it.”
Douglas, a former mining town with a population of around 16,000, is located in US Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, one of the busiest for illegal crossings.
Since Oct. 1, 2023, more than 452,000 migrant encounters have been recorded, according to United States Customs and Border Protection data.
Although arrests have dropped since Biden’s June order, critics argue that the damage has already been done.
“I think what has got to happen is, regardless of the administration, I think that at some places you do need to secure the border, primarily because of human trafficking,” Tom Moffett, a minister from nearby Sonoita, told The Post.
“And that border is many times a last stop for someone being human trafficked.
“I think that you definitely need to secure the border. I think it became much more unsecure under this administration than it was the last administration, because I’ve got a lot of Border Patrol friends and this is coming from them.”
Bill Fortenberry, an actor based in the Old West-themed tourist city of Tombstone, agreed the situation has worsened in recent years.
“I see a lot more activity going on,” he said.
“I think we have some smart people in office on both sides. And regardless of who wins, I think that it is something that needs to be addressed. Because right now … what’s going on really isn’t working, but I feel for everybody involved.”
According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump leads Harris by two percentage points head-to-head in Arizona, which he lost to Biden four years ago.
“Kamala’s last-minute trip to the border and empty calls for more security 39 days before the election will not rewrite the past 44 months of chaos, crime, and bloodshed caused by her open border policy,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Over the past four years as Vice President, Kamala laughed when asked why she hadn’t visited the border, denied the existence of a crisis, and pushed for mass amnesty.
Throughout her entire career, Kamala has fought against more funding for Border Patrol, called to abolish ICE, and voted against construction of President Trump’s border wall,” she continued.
“The American people will not be deceived by Kamala’s political games — they are smart enough to realize Kamala Harris has been in charge of the border for four years and she has failed.”