VP Harris visits the southern U.S. border to propose tighter asylum rules : NPR

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Vice President Kamala Harris was at the border for the first time as the Democratic presidential nominee and just the second time since she took office in 2021. She proposed tighter rules for asylum claims, building on an executive action taken by President Biden earlier this year which allows the administration to suspend asylum claims when the numbers get to certain thresholds. Harris would make it harder to lift these restrictions until numbers drop significantly. Now, the border is an issue that is viewed as a weakness for Harris, and this afternoon was an opportunity for her to try and flip the script on that narrative. We’re joined now by NPR’s Ben Giles, who’s near the border in Douglas, Ariz. Hi, Ben.

BEN GILES, BYLINE: Hello.

CHANG: Hello. OK, let’s just start with the backdrop to this visit – because it may be Harris’ first visit to the border since 2021, but Republicans make pretty regular stump speeches at the border during their campaigns, right? Like, what have they been saying about this Harris trip?

GILES: Well, Republicans, from former President Donald Trump to Arizona congressmen like Andy Biggs, have said this is all just a glorified photo op. They’ve criticized her for not visiting the border. Now they are also criticizing her for visiting the border and calling her out as someone who they say has been ineffective when it comes to border policies. And in fact, just yesterday, Trump said that this visit by Harris plays directly into his hands. He said that Harris has been ineffective the last 3 1/2 years as part of the Biden administration and not accomplished enough to make border communities and the rest of the country safer.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP: For nearly four years, we have been living through the worst border crisis in the history of the world – there’s never been anything like it – which has brought untold suffering, misery and death upon our land. The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris.

GILES: Now, I should add, while Republicans have frequently attacked Harris and the Biden administration over the number of border crossings, those numbers have decreased to near-record lows recently.

CHANG: OK. Well, how has Harris responded to these attacks on her immigration record?

GILES: So the Harris campaign has kind of thrown back the whole photo op criticism into the face of Trump and Republicans. She says they’re the ones who are using the border as a political football. And on the campaign trail recently and today, we’re expected to hear again her mention of the bipartisan border security deal that Congress effectively killed earlier this year at the urging of former President Trump. She says that’s a sign that Trump and other Republicans just want to use the border as a political football, as a cudgel against her on the campaign trail. Harris says they’re not interested in finding real solutions that she and other Democrats in Washington have worked towards.

CHANG: Well, what specific solutions has Harris offered on the border?

GILES: Well, in addition to that bipartisan border security bill, which would have increased resources at the border, it would have increased the threshold for asylum-seekers trying to enter the country. She’s also probably going to tout her administration’s investment through the Infrastructure Act. There’s $200 billion, about, that’s being funneled into the port of entry just nearby here in Douglas. There’s also been calls by Harris to increase technology at the border, particularly fentanyl detection devices, because a lot of fentanyl does move through those ports of entry.

CHANG: That is NPR’s Ben Giles near the border in Douglas, Ariz. Thank you so much, Ben.

GILES: Thank you.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.