Harris to Campaign on AZ-Mexico Border 09/26 06:05

   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.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.

   Just how important immigration and the border are ahead of Election Day was 
evidenced by Trump wasting little time reacting to word of Harris' trip. He 
told a rally crowd in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Harris was going to the 
border "for political reasons" and because "their polls are tanking."

   "When Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero," 
Trump said. "I hope you're going to remember that on Friday. When she tells you 
about the border, ask her just one simple question: "Why didn't you do it four 
years ago?"

   That picks up on a theme Trump mentions at nearly all of his campaign 
rallies, scoffing at Harris as a former Biden administration "border czar," 
arguing that she oversaw softer federal policies that allowed millions of 
people into the country illegally.

   President Joe Biden tasked Harris with working to address the root causes of 
immigration patterns that have caused many people fleeing violence and drug 
gangs in Central America to head to the U.S. border and seek asylum, though she 
was not called border czar.

   Since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential 
ticket, Harris has lamented the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal 
in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at Trump's behest. Her 
campaign aide said she will use Friday's border stop to push for reviving that 
package, which was the toughest in a generation.

   In an interview with MSNBC that aired Wednesday evening, Harris talked about 
reviving that legislative effort, but also helping some people in the country 
illegally get U.S. citizenship.

   "We need a comprehensive plan," she said, "that includes what we need to do 
to fortify not only our border, but deal with the fact that we also need to 
create pathways for people to earn citizenship."

   The stop is part of Harris' larger effort to make immigration an issue that 
can help her win supporters, saying that Trump would rather play politics with 
the issue than seek solutions, while also promising more humane treatment of 
immigrants should she win the White House.

   In June, Biden announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum 
when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, 
arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen.

   Despite that, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public 
Affairs Research released this month found that Trump has an advantage over 
Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a 
problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. 
border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. The 
poll also found that Republicans are more likely to care about immigration.