Harris Vows Stricter Border Policies at Arizona Campaign Event

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She said she would go further than merely reviving the failed bipartisan border bill if elected president.

DOUGLAS, Ariz.—Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona, on Sept. 27 to address the nation’s illegal immigration crisis.

Harris called for tightening restrictions on asylum as former President Donald Trump continues to lead on the topic of immigration among many of the nation’s voters, according to polls.

“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,” Harris said, promising to implement this policy if elected.

The current administration’s record on immigration, including more than 8 million encounters along the southwest border with Mexico alone since January 2021, has been a focal point for both Trump and other Republicans campaigning this year.

Additionally, on Sept. 25, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent a letter to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) detailing how, as of July 21, more than 600,000 noncitizens with criminal histories were on ICE’s national docket, of which 435,719 are convicted criminals.

While Biden temporarily suspended entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border on June 4, he also rescinded many of Trump’s immigration policies, including one that forced asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico until receiving a court date from U.S. immigration.

Trump has promised to restore his administration’s border policies, complete the wall along the southern border, “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,” and increase penalties for illegal border crossings, among other proposals.

He also visited the border in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, on Aug. 22 to emphasize the threat of illegal migration.

During a press conference on Sept. 26, Trump returned to calling Harris Biden’s “border czar.”

“Kamala Harris will be visiting the southern border that she has completely destroyed,” Trump said. “Why would she go to the border now, playing right into the hand of her opponent?”

Early in his term, Joe Biden made Harris his administration’s point person on the root causes of migration. Republicans, political pundits, and members of the media have described it as a “border czar” position responsible for all border security, but her job was specific—figuring out long-term ways to stem migration from three countries in Central America.

The project involved advocating for private-sector investments in the region in an effort to create jobs and decrease the impetus for locals to leave the area for the United States. Even so, the influx of migration has persisted since.

On Friday, Harris also touted her efforts prosecuting transnational gangs as California attorney general, a common theme in her campaign speeches and television ads.

Harris, like Trump, also emphasized the critical threat of fentanyl flowing into the United States across the southern border. The highly addictive and deadly opiate claimed more than 70,000 lives in 2023 alone.

She promised to increase law enforcement funding and training, including 100 new inspection systems for detecting the drug hidden inside vehicles, to limit its flow through ports of entry. Harris also said she would double the Justice Department’s resources to “extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations and the cartels.”

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during a campaign event at Cochise College Douglas Campus in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2024. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) — Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during a campaign event at Cochise College Douglas Campus in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

She targeted China for being the source of fentanyl’s precursor chemicals and pledged to crack down on the companies responsible. Harris also advocated reforming lawful pathways to citizenship.

These calls for action go further than her usual campaign remarks on immigration, which have thus far been mostly limited to hammering Trump for telling Senate Republicans to oppose the bipartisan border bill. She has repeatedly promised to revive the legislation if elected and sign it into law, but that would require congressional support from the GOP.

“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games and their personal political future,” Harris told the crowd of more than 300 in Douglas.

The small city of Douglas—with a population of roughly 16,000—has a Democratic majority in an otherwise Republican-dominated Cochise County. It is close to Agua Prieta, Mexico, a busy port of entry into the United States. Harris said the Biden administration is currently processing a half-a-billion-dollar investment in modernizing and expanding Douglas’s port of entry.

“As your president, I will protect our nation’s sovereignty, secure our border, and work to fix our broken system of immigration. And I will partner with Democrats, Republicans, and independents to do it,” Harris said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.