Kamala Harris is heading to the border with Mexico on Friday to try to score points on immigration, a subject on which Donald Trump, with his violent rhetoric and promises of mass expulsions, maintains an advantage with many voters.
It will be her first trip of this type since she launched the race for the White House, after the withdrawal of President Joe Biden in July.
In Douglas, Arizona, a state in the southwest of the United States which will be hotly contested during the November 5 election, the vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate will, according to a campaign official, “call for tougher security measures.” » at the border.
She is expected to promise to strengthen law enforcement personnel and deploy more equipment to detect fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate that is wreaking havoc in the United States.
The 59-year-old Democrat also intends to “expose Donald Trump’s failure to respond to the challenge (of immigration) when he was president and his recent maneuvers to torpedo solutions supported by both parties”.
The 78-year-old billionaire had lobbied for Republican parliamentarians to block a bill brought by President Joe Biden, which would have significantly toughened American migration policy.
“Close the border”
Kamala Harris should “save the trip.” She should go back to the White House and tell the president (Joe Biden) to close the border,” Donald Trump said Thursday.
“Instead, she’s going to try to convince people that she wasn’t as bad as people think. She was the worst in history, grossly incompetent, weak and ineffective,” he said of the vice-president, whom Joe Biden had charged with a mission on the roots of immigration.
In Arizona, Kamala Harris also wants, according to her campaign manager, to “reject the false idea that we must choose between securing the border and creating a safe, organized and humane immigration system”.
The arrival of migrants at the border with Mexico is one of Donald Trump’s favorite subjects, in whom Americans trust more than his Democratic opponent to respond to illegal immigration, according to polls.
The billionaire, who recently spread false information about Haitian migrants eating dogs and cats in Ohio, uses particularly violent rhetoric against immigrants.
“They are infecting our country,” Donald Trump said Thursday, after having already accused migrants of “poisoning the blood” of America.
“Americans have seen their communities destroyed by this sudden and choking deluge of illegal aliens. It’s a tidal wave, an invasion,” he added.
If elected, the former president, who criticizes Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for having transformed the southern border into a sieve, intends to carry out mass expulsions of illegal immigrants.