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Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly planning on a visit to the southern border in Arizona, as immigration remains a top election issue and her campaign attempts to present her as tough on border security — but critics say any border visit is just a "political stunt."
Multiple outlets reported that Harris’ campaign is considering a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, although details have not been decided. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Should Harris visit the border, it would be her first since she visited El Paso, Texas in 2021 as she faced pressure over the then-escalating crisis at the southern border and her role overseeing root causes of migration — which led her to being dubbed the "border czar."
VIDEO RESURFACES OF HARRIS CHANTING ‘DOWN WITH DEPORTATION’ AT 2018 PARADE WITH DISGRACED ACTOR
It comes as a number of polls show she trails former President Donald Trump significantly on the issue of illegal immigration and border security, in the wake of a massive migrant crisis which shattered records as millions flooded to the border each year under the Biden administration’s watch.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 46% preferred Trump on immigration over the 36% who preferred Harris.
Republicans tied the surge to the "open borders" policies of the administration and the rolling back of Trump-era policies, including wall construction and the Remain-in-Mexico policy. The Biden administration says it needs more funding and reforms from Congress, and has pointed to a sharp drop in encounters since President Biden signed an executive order in June putting limits on asylum entries.
They have also pointed to both Harris’ role in the administration as it oversaw the enormous migrant crisis, and also her past policy positions as a senator and a presidential candidate in 2019. Fox News Digital reported Monday on video of her chanting "down, down with deportation" at a parade in 2018.
HARRIS SHIFTS KEY POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH
Harris also has repeatedly called for various forms of amnesty for illegal immigration, including the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) by executive order. She also said she would use parole authority to create a "parole in place" program to put those illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. She still backs an "earned pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigration by Congress. She had also backed cuts to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
However, since becoming a presidential candidate this summer, her campaign confirmed to Fox earlier this month that she changed her positions on a number of immigration and border-security policies, including decriminalizing illegal crossings and closing immigration detention centers.
Republicans have pushed back against the push to reframe her positions. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., dismissed the visit to the border as a "political stunt."
"She is not going when it was at its height, She's going to probably get a totally cleaned up photo op. And my guess is…she's going to probably get the same treatment some others get," he said. "They're going to clean up the desert, clean everything up so it looks clean for her, instead of as bad as it is environmentally, as well as a danger for the people coming across."
"This isn't even being cynical. It's just being a realist. I mean, she's going down there so she can get some pictures taken over at the border looking like she knows what's going on," he said.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
A Harris campaign adviser told Fox this month that her positions have been "shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration."
The campaign says now that she is "continuing to ensure sufficient resources to enforce our laws and prioritize detention and removal for individuals who pose threats to public safety and national security, as well as ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and decisions, including removal."
She has also repeatedly supported a bipartisan border security bill that would increase funding for the border while also placing a limit on asylum entries into the U.S. — and has hammered former President Trump for torpedoing the bill amid conservative claims that it would only make the crisis worse. She has also emphasized her record as a prosecutor targeting members of transnational criminal organizations.
"As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that [Trump] killed, and I will sign it into law. I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border," she said at the Democratic National Convention.
But Republicans and immigration hawks have pushed back against the framing by the Harris campaign, arguing that while there may be a short-term drop in apprehensions, the way to solve the border crisis is to change strategy.
Fox Digital asked Biggs what he hopes Harris learns on any trip to the border.
"That they could stop this almost immediately by reinstating Title 42, reinstating Remain-in-Mexico. They need to stop the CBP One app because in the last 15 months, 815,000 roughly, they brought in. They need to stop the Cuba, Haiti Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) program. There are things they could do now, almost immediately shut us down. And I want her to understand that. And I don't think she's going to understand that."
RJ Hauman, President of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) and visiting adviser at The Heritage Foundation, was also dismissive of the visit, asking: "What is Kamala Harris planning to do, oversee the installation of ballot drop boxes? Shake hands with illegal aliens as they cross?"
"Her entire campaign is built on gaslighting the American people — that she doesn’t believe what she actually believes, that she didn’t do what she actually did. The immigration issue is a shining example of this," he said. "Until she goes door to door apologizing to angel families, or heads back to Washington and hands Biden a pen, the American people won’t be fooled by this final stretch nonsense."
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