Kamala Harris wants to defeat Donald Trump and take the White House by rolling back her positions on soft crime and immigration.
The 59-year-old vice president announced the change during her first campaign events since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, a tactic that New York Times This comes as Republicans rush to attack her candidacy.
She plans to make them official when she announces her proposed policy for the government this week,
Harris’ past rhetoric on crime reform and illegal immigration in particular has come under fire.
At a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday, Harris embraced the growing emphasis among voters on rising migration in border states.
“I was the attorney general of a border state,” she proudly told her supporters. “I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels, the human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”
Kamala Harris has ramped up her rhetoric on the issues of crime and illegal immigration as her campaign gains momentum
Harris has in recent weeks touted her record as a “border state prosecutor,” saying she “went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels, the human traffickers.”
When Harris was President Biden’s number two, she was tasked with ending the migrant crisis by addressing its root causes in Latin America.
But under the Biden-Harris administration, record numbers of illegal migrants have flooded across the southern border.
According to the CBP, more than 7.8 million people have been apprehended at the border since Biden took office. figures quoted by Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
This does not include the at least 1.5 million “gotaways” – people who were detected by CBP technology but entered the country undetected.
For Republicans, Harris’s responsibilities in this crisis have been a fruitful line of attack during the campaign, as polls show that illegal immigration is increasingly important to American voters.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 56 percent of voters said most or all illegal immigrants in the U.S. should be forcibly rounded up and deported.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, at least 7.8 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the southern border — not including the at least 1.5 million “runaways”
At a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday (pictured), Harris emphasized the growing importance of illegal immigration in border states
But now, amid a wave of attacks on her record from within the Republican Party, Harris’ campaign is trying to focus on the issue and portray her as a tough prosecutor who has spent her career dealing with the problem.
The furthest she has gone in recent weeks is her promise to expand the opportunities for immigrants to become US citizens in the future.
“We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform,” she said Friday at the rally in Arizona.
‘These include strict border control and a deserved path to citizenship.’
In another new TV ad, aimed at voters in swing states in recent days, Harris promises to hire “thousands of additional border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”
In another advertisement currently running, quoted by Politicssaid one narrator: “As vice president, she supported the toughest border control law in decades.
“And as president, she’ll hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Fixing the border is hard. So is Kamala Harris.”
As part of her new strategy, Harris has attacked her 2024 rival, Donald Trump, for his role in “trunking” a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year
The new focus on cracking down on illegal immigration and cracking down on migrants stands in stark contrast to positions Harris has taken in the past, including raising her hand during a 2020 Democratic primary debate when asked whether illegal immigrants should have access to public health care.
Polls also show that voters believe Republicans are more effective in this area, and Harris’ new campaign seems to want to do something about this.
Along with other Democratic nominees, Harris has criticized former President Trump for helping to thwart a bipartisan border bill that was set to pass Congress earlier this year.
The bill would close the border once a certain number of migrants cross it, while significantly expanding Border Patrol’s powers to apprehend and deport migrants who cross the border illegally.
“Donald Trump ruined the deal,” Harris told her audience in Arizona on Friday.
‘Because he thought that would win him the election.’
Though her candidacy is only a few weeks old, Harris’ efforts to reinvent herself could be paying off, according to pollsters and insiders.
Josh Ulibarri, a Democratic pollster from Arizona, told Politico that the updated reporting is seen by many as “smart, strategic and aggressive.”
“(It) fits very well with what the more swing audience in Arizona needs and wants to hear from Democrats right now,” he told the outlet.
We must the [immigration] “So that we can provide clarity to voters about abortion, about economic discussions and the risks that Trump brings.”