The Trump campaign is taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris’ immigration portfolio and using it as a line of attack in two new ads, falsely casting her as the administration’s “border czar.”
Despite an abrupt change in candidates and after a little over a week of adjusting, the Trump campaign is keeping its focus on the US-Mexico border.
The management of the US-Mexico border had been a political liability for President Joe Biden, and it will follow Harris as Trump seizes on her task to address the root causes of migration in Central America.
Republicans have jumped on the assignment — casting her as solely responsible for the record number of migrant arrivals at the US southern border over the last three years.
Both Trump campaign ads pull from a 2021 NBC interview where Harris was pressed about the fact that she hadn’t yet visited the US-Mexico border and she stumbled through a response by claiming she also hadn’t yet gone to Europe—an answer that perplexed administration officials at the time.
While another shows a video of Harris dancing at an event, stating: “This is America’s border czar—and she’s failed us.”
Both ads conclude by describing Harris as “failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.”
Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement Tuesday, “After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular.”
Harris’ record on immigration dates back to March 2021: During an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, Biden tasked the vice president with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America. While Harris focused on long-term fixes, the Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security.
As the vice president’s campaign takes shape and as immigration remains a top issue for voters, her team is forced to contend with an assignment that, sources say, has shown early success in Central America as a result of major private-sector investment but that’s been bundled with the administration’s larger migration issues.
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