Kamala Harris' tough-on-migration pitch at the border points to a shifting national mood
Kamala Harris highlighted her tough-on-migration stance in a border visit, trying to rebut Donald Trump's message that Democrats are soft on immigration enforcement.
Kamala Harris highlighted her tough-on-migration stance during a long-anticipated trip Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, aiming to cover off a political vulnerability and rebut Donald Trump’s core campaign message that Democrats are soft on immigration enforcement.
"The United States is a sovereign nation, and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them, and I take that responsibility very seriously," Harris said in Douglas, Arizona, Friday evening after visiting the border.
Her message reflects a broader turn on immigration that reflects a changing national mood, foreshadowing a new landscape in the coming years where imposing tougher border controls will likely be the focal point regardless of which party wins the 2024 elections.
“The priorities have to be getting the border under control. The numbers are very low right now, but you can’t guarantee that that will remain the case. You also can’t be assured that the courts won’t ultimately strike down the executive orders that the administration has taken,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the party's chief negotiator on a major border security package earlier this year, told NBC News in an interview. “I think our ability to get other reforms into law is made easier by putting a priority on border security.”
Harris’ pitch completes a turnaround from 2019, when she took more left-leaning positions as a presidential candidate including by backing a call to reduce illegal border crossings to a civil — not criminal — violation and by objecting to Obama-era deportations.
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