Trump slams Harris over border policy as she prepares acceptance speech

Former President Donald Trump took his Democratic National Convention counterprogramming message on illegal immigration to the battleground state of Arizona on Thursday, as his new Democratic opponent prepared to take the stage in Chicago.

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her acceptance speech Thursday night, capping a week of events in which speakers have warned voters about the dangers of a second Trump term. Harris has tightened the race against Trump since she topped the ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race — and runoffs in several swing states like border state Arizona are expected to determine the presidency.

“The choice is simple: Massive criminal amnesty by Kamala, or Massive criminal deportation by President Trump,” Trump said in Cochise County, Arizona, as he stood next to a section of the border wall.

Trump trolled Harris throughout the day Thursday ahead of her appearance in Chicago, starting with a morning interview on Fox News, a midday visit to the southern border and his plan to release his “detailed account” of the DNC’s prime-time speakers.

For weeks, the Trump campaign and Republicans have been trying to pin the blame for the surge in illegal immigration during Biden’s first three years in office on Kamala Harris, given that the president tasked her with addressing the root causes of migration in Central America. Trump and Republicans have used the title “border czar” to describe her role, though she and the Biden administration reject it. The term was also previously used as shorthand by many media outlets.

“She liked the title, but she didn’t want to do the work, or she was lazy,” Trump said. “And probably more importantly than being lazy, she wants an open border.”

Harris leads Trump 59% to 34% among likely Hispanic voters in Arizona, according to a new poll conducted by TelevisaUnivision’s Strategy & Insights and Media in partnership with Media Predict, though more than a third said they don’t yet know who they’ll vote for. The voting bloc will be crucial in this key swing state, given that Hispanics make up about 20% of the state’s electorate.

Trump has promised, if re-elected, to carry out mass deportations, finish building the U.S.-Mexico border wall, end birthright citizenship and reinstate the ban on people from some Muslim-majority countries entering the United States. During his speech, he detailed a dozen cases of brutal murders and rapes allegedly committed by people who entered the United States illegally.

“In her convention speech tonight, Kamala will not mention the victims, she will not even talk about them — although now that she sees us, she may,” Trump said. “She will not say their names or express remorse to their families. Kamala says she wants to talk about the future. No, these people want to go back to the safe past. We don’t have a future with open borders and all the other problems.”

Trump also praised the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier in the day that will allow Arizona to require new voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote using a state form, but it’s unlikely to have much impact because voters can use a federal form instead. It’s illegal in the United States for noncitizens to vote and studies show it’s rare, but the Supreme Court was responding to an emergency appeal from the Republican National Committee.

“I applaud the Supreme Court for this decision,” Trump said. “They are showing great courage in doing what they are doing.”

Earlier this year, Trump discouraged Republicans from accepting a bipartisan border deal that Biden had supported. In turn, the president issued an executive order in June to suspend asylum applications when the border averaged 2,500 crossings per day over a seven-day period. Illegal border crossings plummeted as a result.

Illegal immigration was not a dominant theme at the Democratic National Convention, unlike the Republican National Convention, which was marked by speeches from people whose loved ones were victims of violent crimes and drug overdoses. Three people affected by violent crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants were present alongside Trump during his visit to Arizona.

Alexis Nungaray spoke out about the strangulation death of her 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. “Please consider the importance of border control,” she said, “because we are losing innocent people to heinous crimes that should never have happened.”

Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has not given any interviews about her immigration policies. She has previously supported decriminalizing border crossings and expanding Medicare to everyone living in the United States, regardless of immigration status.

Since then, Harris’ campaign has focused on her support for the bipartisan border bill and her work to combat transnational gangs. She also visited a Customs and Border Protection processing center in the border city of El Paso, Texas, in June 2021 after facing criticism from Republicans.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who was on Harris’ running mate list, called Trump’s border visit a “photo op” during a call with reporters hosted by the presidential campaign. “He said he wanted this to be a campaign issue,” Kelly said of Trump’s call for Republicans to reject the legislation. “Trump and Vance, they only want to campaign on this issue,” he added. “Donald Trump didn’t fix this the last time he was in office, and he doesn’t really want to fix it now.”

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the former president’s running mate, said at a news conference before Trump’s remarks that the bill had “nothing to do with border security” and instead codified existing executive orders.

He accused Harris of “finding Jesus in being tough on crime” when Biden dropped out of the race because she had adopted his law-and-order image as a former prosecutor.

Republicans also pointed to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, which found that at least 32,000 unaccompanied minors have failed to show up for their immigration court hearings over the past five years, making it difficult to track their whereabouts and leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.