Harris campaign seeks to turn tables on Trump on border security

Ahead of her trip to the U.S.-Mexico border area of Arizona on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is out with a new ad going at former President Donald Trump’s effort to torpedo a bipartisan Senate border security deal.

The ad, which the campaign says will hit the airwaves Friday in Arizona and other battlegrounds, says Harris has a plan to “hire thousands more border agents, enforce the law and step up technology.”

During what is being billed a major speech in Douglas, Ariz., the vice president intends to say, “The American people deserve a President who cares more about border security than playing political games,” according to a senior campaign official.

Among her proposals on the technology front include bolstering fentanyl-detecting capacity at the border, as well as pushing the Chinese government on the issue.

A senior campaign official expressed optimism that the Harris campaign could actually take ground from Trump on the immigration and border security issue, citing the special election victory of Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., where the Democrat made immigration (and the GOP opposition to the bipartisan Senate bill) a significant part of his campaign messaging.

Trump and his supporters have been pinning blame for border security on Harris, often ascribing to her the title of “border czar” in reference to her Biden administration role working on migration from central America. Harris and her allies have sought to make clear the border issues specifically were not in that portfolio.

The presidential contest in Arizona appears to be a dead heat. The most recent Marist poll numbers, for instance, show Harris trailing Trump by one point, even as Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has a double-digit lead over Republican Kari Lake in the state’s Senate race.