Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since 2021 on Friday, vowing to restrict illegal immigration as president amid persistent criticism from former President Donald Trump that he is responsible for out-of-control illegal immigration. announced that it would take stricter measures. border entrance.

“I believe that the United States is a sovereign nation and we have an obligation to set rules on our borders and to enforce them,” Harris told the audience gathered in a small auditorium on Cochise College's Douglas campus in Douglas, Arizona. He said this: On either side of the stage were large signs that read “Border Security and Stability.” “We are also a nation of immigrants. America has been enriched by generations of people who have come from all corners of the world to contribute to our country and be part of our story.”

Harris said she would go beyond the Biden administration's policies to further restrict access to the border outside of official ports of entry.

In the early afternoon, Harris visited a port of entry less than 10 miles from her campaign site. Two Border Patrol agents walked with her along a towering fence built during the Obama administration. Harris later told reporters she thanked them for their work.

“They have demanding jobs and of course they need support to do their jobs. They are very dedicated,” she said. “So I came here to talk to them about what we can do going forward to support them.”

She advocated hiring more police officers and adding fentanyl detection systems at border entrances.

“I reject the false choice between securing our borders and creating a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” Harris said. “We can and must do both.”

Immigration reform has vexed presidents of both parties for decades.

A bipartisan proposal earlier this year that combined increased funding for border security with foreign aid to Ukraine appeared to be an initial breakthrough until President Trump stalled it after urging Republicans to oppose it.

The agreement will revamp the refugee system and legal immigration process and provide a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people in the country without legal permission, including people who entered the country as children. It fell short of a comprehensive plan that had been discussed for years. Harris on Friday referred to immigrants who came as children, known as farm workers and “Dreamers.”

“As president, I will put politics aside to improve our immigration system and find solutions to problems that have persisted for far too long,” Harris said.

Ahead of Harris' border visit, President Trump said data provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the request of lawmakers shows that convicted felons who are in the country illegally but not in federal custody He pointed to reports that there are more than 425,000 people. .

This includes more than 13,000 people convicted of murder and 15,800 people convicted of sexual assault, the newspaper said. ICE data shared by Xpreviously on Twitter, by Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas).

President Trump said Thursday that 21 million people have entered the United States illegally in the past four years alone. He framed the bipartisan effort he helped defeat: “Her damn border bill.”

“It wasn't a border bill. It was an amnesty bill…” he said at a news conference in Manhattan. “Fortunately, Congress was too wise for that.”

The bill would not have provided a path to citizenship for people without legal status.

The Republican candidate's appearance at Trump Tower was reminiscent of the campaign announcement he made there in 2015, specifically mentioning that other countries intentionally send criminals to the United States. It reminded me.

Her statements contained multiple falsehoods, including that Harris had approved numerous changes to the country's immigration policy that she had no control over as vice president, and that Harris was the Biden administration's “border czar.” . She had been charged with trying to improve conditions in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in order to prevent their residents from fleeing their homelands.

The mission has been a political headache for Harris, drawing criticism from the left and right.

During a visit to Central America in 2021, Harris told would-be immigrants they would be deported if they crossed the border, infuriating immigrant advocates who say they are fleeing poverty, corruption and violence. .

“Please don't come,” she said at the time. “You'll be turned away.”

During the same trip, Harris infuriated her right-wing critics in a nationally televised interview when she laughed off a question about why she had not yet visited the border as vice president.

While the presidential race is extremely close in polls, with Trump holding a double-digit lead on border security, both political parties are extremely focused on immigration. However, the gap has narrowed since President Biden decided not to seek re-election and Harris gained support as the Democratic presidential nominee.

In December, the number of border crossings reached a record high, with officials making nearly 250,000 arrests. Amid heightened political tensions, Mr. Biden signed an order in June that sharply restricted asylum claims, causing the number of border encounters to plummet to less than 60,000 in July and August.

Republicans have slammed the issue, with Republican lawmakers passing a resolution “strongly condemning the Biden administration and its border czar Kamala Harris' failure to secure the U.S. border” the day after the president announced he would not seek re-election. It has been submitted.

Some of the claims made by the former president and his allies are demonstrably false and have been denounced by Republican lawmakers, such as claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio; Voters are concerned about the impact an insecure border would have on America. The economic, crime, and fentanyl crises are evident in many communities.

According to the Harris-Waltz campaign, Friday's trip to Arizona will be Harris' second since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. While Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff have campaigned in battleground states in the Southwest, Harris has campaigned directly in key states further east, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. have focused much of their attention on

Hours before the vice president arrived in Arizona, Republicans held a press conference highlighting two mothers whose daughters were raped and murdered by illegal immigrants and the mother of a teenage son who overdosed on fentanyl. Ta. The women criticized Harris for her administration's immigration policies and for visiting the border so close to the election.

“I'm trying not to cry. We live 1,800 miles from the border,” she said of the brutal attack while walking on a bucolic, busy public road in Maryland. said Patti Morin, mother of Rachel Morin, the mother of five children who received the virus. Her body was found in a drainage pipe.

“No one is safe in America, no one is safe. If you have sanctuary cities in your state, you are not safe,” she said. “They've been bussing, flying, and training illegal immigrants into literally every corner and every small town across the United States.”

Those concerns are one reason the Harris campaign released an immigration ad in Arizona on Friday and visited the southern border a month and a half before Election Day. As vice president, she visited the region once in 2021, during which she toured the El Paso port of entry and border operations.

Mehta reported from Phoenix and Pinho from Douglas. Times staff writers Noah Biermann and Andrea Castillo contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.