A group of speakers in the Democratic National Convention should deal with immigration policy and Border security Harris campaign officials told CBS News on Wednesday in an attempt to redefine what is widely seen as a major political weakness for Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris this campaign cycle.
The speakers, which include Democratic lawmakers who have focused on immigration policy and the sheriff of a Texas county near the US-Mexico border, are expected a cross-party agreement on border security An agreement was forged earlier this year that would impose significant restrictions on asylum and finance the hiring of thousands of additional border guards and immigration officials.
They intend to accuse former President Donald Trump of playing political games on immigration by calls on Republican MPs to to reject the compromise on border policy that failed in Congress without sufficient Republican support. At the same time, speakers are expected to portray Trump as an anti-immigration figure and highlight his most controversial campaign promises, including a promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants as part of a large-scale deportation operation.
Among those making a push on immigration are Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democratic negotiator on the team that brokered the border security deal; Representative Tom Suozzi of New York, who softened Republican attacks on immigration in a swing district on Long Island by taking a centrist stance on the issue; and Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, Texas, the Harris team told CBS News.
Brynn Anderson / AP
Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, and social media influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina are also scheduled to speak on immigration on Wednesday, the campaign added.
The plans suggest Democrats are doubling down on efforts to neutralize attacks on immigration, which Republicans and Trump have sought to make a key issue of the 2024 campaign, citing record numbers of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration. Trump plans to visit an area near the Arizona-Mexico border on Thursday to offer counterprograms to the DNC.
Polls last year showed immigration to be one of the worst campaign issues for the Biden-Harris administration. CBS News Poll A study released earlier this week found that voters are more likely to believe Trump is more likely to reduce the number of migrant crossings at the southern border than Harris.
Trump and Republicans have blamed Harris for the unprecedented number of border crossings in recent years and branded her as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” although Harris was not assigned that role. Instead, she was commissioned overseeing diplomatic efforts to combat poverty, violence and other root causes of migration from Central America. They also highlighted their more liberal stance on immigration during their 2020 presidential bid, including their advocacy for decriminalization of border crossings.
But Harris has tried to change that perception during her campaign. At rallies, she promised that if elected, she would revive the bipartisan border security agreement and work to create an “earned” path to U.S. citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants. In a recent ad, the Harris campaign touted her work as a prosecutor fighting international gangs and her support for beefing up border patrol agents.
Unlike in previous years, Harris and the Democrats can now point to the fact that the number of border crossings has fallen sharply. In July, illegal border crossings were dropped for the fifth consecutive month and fell to the lowest level since September 2020. Officials attribute the massive drop in migrant arrivals to an executive action by Mr Biden in June that partially paused asylum processing, the scorching summer heat and Mexico’s efforts to slow migration to the US.
Harris’ attempts to portray herself as a champion of border security underscore a general trend among most Democrats to take a harder line on border issues. The party platform adopted at the DNC this week, for example, calls for restrictions on asylum policy – a sharp departure from the party’s more progressive stance on immigration in 2020.
The 2024 election platform states that the Democrats would support the rapid deportation of economic refugees and that Congress would be called upon to “tighten” the “requirements” for asylum applications. Presidents should have the power to stop the processing of asylum applications if the “system is overloaded,” the election platform states.
The 2020 election manifesto made no mention of any restrictions on the right to asylum. On the contrary, the Democrats promised to “protect and expand the existing asylum system and other humanitarian protection measures” and “end the Trump administration’s policy of denying asylum seekers protected entry.”
The party’s manifesto at the time condemned Trump-era immigration policies as “extremely callous, cruel and reckless.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
