Harris campaign weighs trip to the US southern border amid polling concerns
By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
(CNN) — Campaign officials are weighing a potential visit by Vice President Kamala Harris to the US-Mexico border while in Arizona on Friday as the campaign tries to close the gap with former President Donald Trump on the issue of immigration, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Immigration has featured prominently in the 2024 presidential election. Democrats, grappling with years of border crises, have tried to flip the script on Republicans after the GOP blocked a bipartisan border measure earlier this year.
Some Harris campaign officials remain concerned about the gap in polling, which shows Trump holding a lead on the issue, but also see an opportunity to narrow a gap they believe is closing and try to shut down GOP attacks over her not visiting the border enough, according to one of the sources.
Harris previously visited the border while vice president and has cited her work as a border state senator and attorney general.
No final decision has been made, according to another source.
CNN reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Friday’s visit to Arizona also comes at a time when border crossings are the lowest they’ve been since 2020 – and comes on the heels of new polling that shows Trump leading in the battleground state.
US officials have touted back-to-back months of low border crossings, citing recent executive action curbing asylum access at the US southern border, even as Trump levies campaign attacks over the Biden administration’s handling of border security.
Republicans have falsely claimed that Harris is the “border czar,” casting her as solely responsible for the management of the US-Mexico border. It’s a title that Harris’ team has been trying to shake off since the moment President Joe Biden assigned her to tackle root causes of migration in 2021.
Harris campaign officials think she has a case on immigration: Using the failed bipartisan border measure to cast Trump as unserious on the border and citing her time as California attorney general tackling transnational criminal gangs.
Last week, Harris slammed Trump over his immigration proposals, citing his controversial policies to draw a stark contrast with her Republican rival.
“While we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward. We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation in American history,” she said.
“Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How’s that going to happen? Massive raids, massive detention camps. What are they talking about?” she added.
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