Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign tries to turn the larger issue of immigration from a liability into a strength and hopes to counter a line of frequent, searing political attacks from former President Donald Trump. Her campaign announced Wednesday that Harris will be in Douglas, Arizona, across the border from Agua Prieta, Mexico.
A Harris aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a trip that was still being planned, said the vice president plans to speak about border security and how, as a former attorney general of California, she took on international gangs and criminal organizations who traffic drugs, guns, and human beings. She also has long believed that the country needs an immigration system that is secure, fair, orderly and humane, the aide said.
Trump has built his campaign partly around calling for cracking down on immigration and the southern border, even endorsing using police and the military to carry out mass deportations should he be elected in November. Harris has increasingly tried to seize on the issue and turn it back against her opponent, though polls show voters continue to trust Trump more on it.