Some Democrats concede that they need to prioritize border security and enforcement before they can get to other goals, like expanding legal pathways for newcomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kamala Harris<\/a> highlighted her tough-on-migration stance<\/a> during a long-anticipated trip<\/a> Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, aiming to cover off a political vulnerability and rebut Donald Trump\u2019s core campaign message that Democrats are soft on immigration<\/a> enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The United States is a sovereign nation, and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them, and I take that responsibility very seriously,” Harris said in Douglas, Arizona, Friday evening after visiting the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her message reflects a broader turn on immigration that reflects a changing national mood, foreshadowing a new landscape in the coming years where imposing tougher border controls will likely be the focal point regardless of which party wins the 2024 elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe priorities have to be getting the border under control. The numbers are very low right now, but you can\u2019t guarantee that that will remain the case. You also can\u2019t be assured that the courts won\u2019t ultimately strike down the executive orders that the administration has taken,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the party’s chief negotiator on a major border security package<\/a> earlier this year, told NBC News in an interview. \u201cI think our ability to get other reforms into law is made easier by putting a priority on border security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris\u2019 pitch completes a turnaround from 2019, when she took more left-leaning positions as a presidential candidate including by backing a call to reduce illegal border crossings to a civil \u2014 not criminal \u2014 violation and by objecting to Obama-era deportations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Harris highlighted a different side of herself: the tough prosecutor who took on international gangs and organized crime as the top law enforcement officer of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The issue of border security is not a new issue to me. I was attorney general of a border state for two terms. I saw the violence and chaos that transnational criminal organizations cause and the heartbreak and loss from the spread of their illicit drugs,” Harris said, adding that going after such gangs would be a priority if she is elected president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also emphasized that the U.S. “has been enriched by generations of people who have come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and to become part of the American story. And so we must reform our immigration system to ensure that it works in an orderly way, that it is humane and that makes our country stronger.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris\u2019 immediate goal is to signal to moderate voters that she will be an aggressive enforcer of the law and keep migration in check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After struggling on the issue, Democrats have finally found what they believe is a winning message: Reminding voters that former President Trump pressured Republicans to kill a bipartisan bill<\/a> that would impose tougher border controls and make it harder to get asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris said that, unlike Trump, she would embrace bipartisan solutions \u201cbecause I know, transnational gangs coming across the border, trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings could care less who somebody voted for in the last election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GOP advantage has narrowed since it blocked the bill in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In January, NBC News polling found that Trump held a 35-point advantage over President Joe Biden among voters asked who they trust more on \u201csecuring the border and controlling immigration,\u201d In a new NBC News poll<\/a> this month, Trump led Harris by 21 points. The poll found a stark gender divide: Trump led Harris on the border question by 41 points among men, by 52 points among white men and by 13 points among non-white men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Republican political advantage on the issue of the border has shrunk because their position has been exposed. They don\u2019t want to solve the problem, they just want to complain about the problem, and their failure to support the bipartisan border bill is ultimately hurting them,\u201d said Murphy, who negotiated the bill with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m proud that Democrats, led by the Vice President, are finally talking about border security,\u201d he said. \u201cAmericans care about this issue, and they want a party that\u2019s going to do something about it, not just talk about it, and Democrats right now are the only party that have a plan to fix the border. Republicans don\u2019t have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris has said she would bring back that bill and push to pass it if she\u2019s elected president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I won\u2019t only bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump tanked, I will do more to secure our border to reduce illegal border crossings,” she said Friday. “I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry, those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from reentering for five years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Lankford said that reviving this year’s border security deal s not so simple and accused Harris of being absent on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe also said that she and Joe worked on it together with conservatives, and she was never in a single one of the negotiations,\u201d Lankford said in an interview. \u201cFour months of negotiations \u2014 she or her staff were never in a single negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow she wants to bring it up next year. Obviously, there are parts that expire, like the border wall money,\u201d said Lankford, the top Republican on a key Senate border subcommittee. \u201cNo bill you can just pick up and just move to another year, because it just doesn\u2019t work that way. I think she knows that. It\u2019s a good talking point, but mechanically, that\u2019s not actually true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris campaign spokespeople didn’t immediately comment on Lankford’s assertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changing politics will impact immigration policy regardless of the outcome of the election. Trump is promising mass deportations<\/a> of millions of people in the U.S. illegally if he\u2019s elected. Harris is proposing to balance tougher enforcement with creating new legal pathways for people to become Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democratic hopes of granting permanent residency to the millions of people in the U.S. illegally have all but faded, after failing under several Democratic trifectas over the last decade and a half. Harris continues to call for pathways to legal status for at least some immigrants, but her campaign declined to say when asked if she wants to normalize the status of all the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., or a smaller population like young \u201cDreamers\u201d<\/a> brought to the country as children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Nanette Barrag\u00e1n, D-Calif., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, noted that this year’s border bill, which members of the CHC saw as far too generous to the right<\/a>, was negotiated because Republicans were holding Ukraine funding \u201chostage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way to know if the border bill is going to come back, right? If it were to come back, I hope that there\u2019s going to be a conversation with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on that bill,\u201d she said, arguing that it could use revision. \u201cThat\u2019s really a border bill. It\u2019s not, in my opinion, an immigration bill. I would like to see more. I would like to see pathways to citizenship added in there where there\u2019s real negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Murphy said the legalization component will have to take a backseat to enforcement in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI certainly support a path to citizenship, but I think you\u2019ve got to probably first show the American that you\u2019re committed to a rules-based immigration system,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cAnd that will make it easier to find a pathway for folks who are living in the shadows of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nTrump still leads on handling border \u2014 but by less<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Key Democrat says border comes first<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n