(The Center Square) – Vice President Kamala Harris visited border town Douglas, Ariz., Friday evening to share her plan to address the nation's immigration crisis.
After going to the ports of entry in Douglas and meeting with border control officials, Harris spoke to local leaders about how she would decrease illegal border crossings and reduce fentanyl trafficking.
Touting her experience as attorney general in California, Harris said that she has experience when it comes to dealing with the Southern border, noting times when she seized cocaine from a Guadalajara cartel, arrested dozens over drug trafficking and busted a transnational criminal organization.
“I believe we have the responsibility to set rules and enforce them at our border and I take that job seriously,” Harris said.
Harris said that one of her top priorities once she's in the White House would be to increase border enforcement at the southern border’s ports of entry. She said that while the U.S. is a “country of immigrants,” Americans have a right to feel safe in their country.
Harris said that she and President Joe Biden are investing half a million dollars to modernize and expand the port of entry in Douglas. She said border control agents she met earlier in the day said their biggest issue is being understaffed and lacking resources. Harris said that she would increase the number of border agents and invest in the resources they need.
Additionally, Harris said that the border control agents noted the biggest way fentanyl is trafficked into the country is through vehicles that enter legally through the ports of entry. The problem is that agents do not have enough personnel or resources to search every vehicle that comes through. Consequently, Harris said that if elected president, she will have advanced technology that can detect fentanyl implemented at all ports of entry into the U.S.
Harris also said that she will enforce stricter immigration regulations, requiring any immigrant that enters the country illegally to be apprehended, removed and barred from entering the country for five years, including asylum seekers.
Former President Donald Trump's campaign officials said that Harris was appointed to oversee the Southern border by Biden and should have enforced these policies that she is now advocating for.
In a press call hosted by the Trump campaign on Friday, three women spoke about how the deaths of their children were a direct result of immigrants illegally crossing the border.
Alexis Nungaray lost her 12-year-old daughter three months ago when she was taken from a corner store by two Venezuelan immigrants that entered the country illegally. Her daughter, Jocelyn, was taken under a bridge where security footage shows they stayed for two hours before the immigrants emerged without Jocelyn. Her body was later discovered in the nearby river, strangled to death, her ankles and hands bound.
“I believe these open border policies are responsible for the death of my daughter,” Nungaray said.
Three weeks prior to this, the Venezuelan immigrants had been apprehended at the border, but were not detained, just given an order to appear in court - a common practice known as “catch and release.”
“It is not virtuous to open up a border to murderers and unvetted immigrants,” said Patty Morin, whose daughter was killed by an illegal foreign national.
Despite this, Harris said that she has worked on legislation to crack down on the border, citing the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act which failed in the Senate after Trump spoke out against it. The $118 billion bill would have expanded detention facilities and hired more border control agents, asylum officers and immigration judges.
Harris said that she plans to bring that bill back if elected president and noted that after all of Trump’s advocacy regarding securing the border, he spoke out against a bill that would do just that.
“He prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing the problem,” Harris said.
At this time, Trump has a narrow lead in multiple polls over Harris in Arizona, with border security policies being a top factor as to why Arizonans support him.
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