(NewsNation) — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time in three years Friday, and the first time since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, in hopes of addressing one of the biggest topics on voters’ minds.
Harris will deliver a speech on immigration policy in Douglas, Arizona, a mostly Democratic border town with 16,000 residents.
Harris and the Biden administration have faced criticism for their handling of border security and immigration. Former President Donald Trump has faulted her for spending little time at the border during her vice presidency. The last time she was publicly known to have been at the border was in 2021 when she toured a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center in El Paso, Texas.
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FILE – Vice President Kamala Harris talks to the media, June 25, 2021, after her tour of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas. Harris visited the U.S. southern border as part of her role leading the Biden administration’s response to a steep increase in migration. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” Harris plans to say in the speech, according to an excerpt of her remarks previewed by her campaign, the Associated Press reported.
Douglas is an overwhelmingly Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County, where the Republicans on the board of supervisors are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. Trump was in the area last month, using a remote stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a contrast between himself and Harris on border security.
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On Thursday, Trump gave a speech in New York giving his opinion on Harris’ visit that hadn’t happened yet: “Anything she says tomorrow, you know is a fraud because she was the worst in history at protecting our country. So, she’ll try and make herself look a little bit better. But it’s not possible.”
Election day is less than six weeks away, and Arizona is a key battleground state with the potential to swing the election for either Harris or Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
