Updated September 27, 2024 at 19:18 PM ET
DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Vice President Harris walked along the U.S. border with Mexico on Friday alongside a stretch of border wall built during the Obama administration, talking with border officials about their work.
It was a photo op meant to illustrate that she supports border security — one of the biggest concerns voters have about Harris — and to try to defang criticism from her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“They’ve got a tough job and they need, rightly, support to do their job. They are very dedicated. And so I'm here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them," Harris told reporters.
Part of that support is a new policy proposal from Harris. She intends to propose tighter rules for asylum seekers, a campaign official told reporters traveling with her.
The proposal would build on executive action taken by President Biden earlier this year that effectively allows the administration to suspend asylum claims when numbers reach certain thresholds, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of Harris’ remarks.
Harris will announce that she would have even tougher emergency authorities, making them harder to lift until numbers drop to significantly low levels.
Border security is one of Harris' biggest political liabilities
Most polls show that Trump has an edge over Harris when it comes to border security — although it’s not as big as the one he had over Biden when he was the Democratic candidate. Trump had made cracking down on immigration a signature issue when he was in office, and has revived it for his campaign for another term.
Harris previously has said that if she wins the election, she would try to revive a bipartisan agreement that would have provided more funding to hire more border agents, as well as tighten rules for asylum and expand detention facilities. Harris and Biden have blamed Trump for pressuring his allies in Congress to block the bill.
Biden later took executive action to try to accomplish some of the measures in the bill, though it is being challenged in court. Unlawful border crossings have since dropped by more than 50%, the White House said, and are currently at their lowest level in four years.
Under Biden's policy, asylum claim processing is suspended when the seven-day average of unauthorized crossings exceeds 2,500. That suspension stays in place until the seven-day average drops to 1,500 per day for at least two weeks.
But Harris' proposal would see that 1,500-per-day bar drop lower still, the official told reporters — though details were not immediately available.
Trump says Harris should have done more during Biden's term
In a speech before Harris’ trip, Trump attacked Harris for not doing more to address border security as vice president, calling her a “border czar” responsible for the surges in migration during Biden’s term.
The “border czar” moniker refers to an assignment Biden gave to Harris early on in her time as vice president to work with Central American leaders on economic and societal issues that were driving tens of thousands of people to try to seek asylum in the United States.
Harris has said her work on the root causes of migration got results. But she hasn’t talked about that on the campaign trail, instead choosing to emphasize her work as California’s attorney general cracking down on drug smuggling.
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