Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the politics of immigration .
INSIDE THE BORDER PIVOT: The Phoenix trip coincided with Harris’ first real attempts to sketch out a message on immigration and border issues after four years where she and Biden mostly tried to change the subject as record numbers of migrants streamed across the southern border.
Harris’ task isn’t necessarily to persuade border-focused voters that she would be tougher than Trump. But there were signs yesterday that her campaign is trying to harness the flywheel effect of the campaign reset and her polling surge to at least defuse the issue and reassure voters who might have doubts that she is engaged on the issue.
As Eugene and Elena Schneider wrote last night, she tested that message in front of an Arizona crowd by (1) highlighting her record as AG of “border state” California in combating transnational crime; (2) promising to fight for “strong border security”; (3) attacking Trump for killing bipartisan border legislation earlier this year; and (4) promising to sign a similar bill if she became president. A new campaign ad released yesterday touched on similar themes.
It’s worth reflecting on the transformation that Harris (and much of the rest of the Democratic Party) has undergone since 2019, when she joined several other presidential hopefuls on a debate stage in agreeing that migrants crossing the U.S. border should not be subject to criminal penalties.
Now, Harris’ position is that “unauthorized border crossings are illegal,” according to a campaign statement yesterday. And her pledge last night to sign a legislation that would upend U.S. asylum law and make it much easier to deport undocumented immigrants without addressing the status of those already in the country was a major applause line.
