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He turns to the border to counter Harris’ momentum

He turns to the border to counter Harris’ momentum

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Donald Trump, who suddenly finds himself in a neck-and-neck race with new Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, came to Arizona basing his opposition on one of his earliest campaign messages: immigration.

During a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, the former president painted a gruesome, violent picture of illegal immigration, using Cochise County as the backdrop for his counter-program on the day the vice president accepts her party’s presidential nomination.

“If we win this November, we will put an end to the Kamala Harris border nightmare,” Trump said, standing next to an unfinished section of the border wall.

Trump joined the families of victims reportedly killed by undocumented immigrants, saying the people who cross the border into the United States and commit such crimes “make our criminals look like babies.”

The mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old killed in Texas, stood next to Trump and made an emotional appeal for more border controls, saying she hoped listeners would “hear my pain.”

“I really, really, really want everyone to understand how important border control is because we are losing very innocent people to very heinous crimes that should not be happening,” said Alexis Nungaray.

Live coverage: Donald Trump visits border and holds rally in Arizona

Trump spoke for nearly 90 minutes, attacking President Joe Biden and deriding Harris as a “Marxist.” He was joined by senior campaign advisers, including Corey Lewandowski, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley also took part in the tour.

In his speech, the former president praised the U.S. Supreme Court after it issued a temporary injunction on Thursday restricting the ability of Arizona residents to register to vote without proof of their citizenship.

Border officials welcomed Trump to the region on Thursday.

“It’s a really strong message,” said Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who received the former president. “If you look at his record from his time as president, this was a priority for him.”

During his border stop, Trump spoke to a Cochise County manhunt for a person suspected of threatening him.

When asked by the media, Trump said he was not aware of the situation.

“I’ve heard it’s dangerous, but I have a job to do. I’ve heard it’s very dangerous. I haven’t heard anything about that,” Trump said. “They probably want to keep it a secret from me. Thank you for telling me.”

Trump added that he had “great respect” for the Secret Service, which came under fire from both parties last month after Trump was injured in an assassination attempt on July 13.

“Mistakes were made and they will learn from the mistakes,” he said.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Thursday that it was searching for Ronald Syvrud, a 66-year-old Benson resident, after “becoming aware of threats on social media.”

“But no, I haven’t heard that, but I’m not particularly surprised,” Trump said. “And the reason is that I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys. I’ve heard that this trip is very unsafe. There were some people who really didn’t want me to do it.”

Trump’s decision to fly to Arizona and visit the southern border during the Democratic National Convention underscores how quickly the presidential race has changed. Trump had a comfortable lead over Biden in Arizona polls earlier this summer, but new polls show Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the battleground state, with Harris narrowly ahead.

Trump arrived by plane at Sierra Vista Municipal Airport on Thursday morning and was greeted by a crowd of elected officials and supporters. From there, he traveled with a smaller group, including former Democrat and now independent Sierra Vista Mayor Clea McCaa, to Montezuma Pass for a border tour and press conference.

Trump will continue his campaign in Arizona with a rally in Glendale on Friday. In a speech in Phoenix on Friday morning, he addressed rumors that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might drop out of the race. Trump said he had not spoken to Kennedy recently but would consider his endorsement an honor. He noted that both will be in the state on Friday but cautioned that there are no firm plans for Kennedy to appear at the Trump rally.

Kennedy was “smart” and “a little different, but that’s OK,” Trump said.

Since Harris took the top spot on the ballot, Trump has brought immigration back into focus. The former Republican president sent his running mate JD Vance to the border in Cochise County in early August. Trump also teamed up with Brandon Judd, the former president of the National Border Patrol Council who has worked in Arizona, to confront Harris on immigration in a press conference.

Now, some officials near the southern border are asking Harris to see the region for himself. Dannels recently asked Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona to extend Harris an invitation to visit Cochise County. The mayor of Sierra Vista, a city near the border, also sent Harris an invitation, according to Dannels. McCaas’ office declined to comment on the invitation.

“It’s very important that she comes here. Because for three and a half years, we have not seen any prioritization, recognition or cooperation from Vice President Harris or President Biden,” Dannels said. “The fact that she’s not coming in the next 78 days … sends a very strong signal.”

Biden has visited the southern border twice during his tenure in the White House, most recently in Brownsville, Texas, to promote bipartisan border legislation that stalled in Congress after Trump urged Republicans to vote against it to deny Democrats an election victory.

“Trump and Vance are just trying to campaign on this issue. Donald Trump didn’t fix this in his last term and he doesn’t really want to fix it now. He’s made that very clear,” Kelly said Wednesday during a video press conference. “I’m confident that Vice President Harris will be the problem-solver we need. … This is an issue that is close to her heart, that she has worked on and that she has helped us with.”

Kelly confirmed that he had spoken to Dannels and said he too welcomes anyone who wants to visit the border. The senator dodged a question about whether he had passed on Dannels’ invitation to the vice president, instead calling Trump’s visit a “photo opportunity.”

Ken Budge, mayor of Bisbee and a Harris ally in Cochise County, attended the conference with Kelly and said, “Coming down and standing next to a big metal fence doesn’t do much good.”

“Getting out into the communities and talking to the politicians here and hearing from them and the public is what really matters, and that’s what she’s hearing by proxy,” Budge said. “Just taking a photo with a big rusty wall in the background, I don’t think that’s going to accomplish anything. But I know that Vice President Harris is listening to us as we get our messages out there, and I think that’s the important part.”

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Kamala Harris wants to sign the border law as soon as she takes office

Kamala Harris, who opposed Donald Trump’s refusal to sign a border bill, told a crowd in Glendale on August 9, 2024 that he “messed up the deal” to “help him win an election.”

Reuters

Republicans have spent millions to keep immigration top of mind for Arizona voters: last month, Republicans spent five times as much on immigration-themed television ads as Democrats. But new data showing that border crossings are declining could cloud the party’s campaign message.

Federal officials recorded a 40% drop in migrant encounters in the month after Biden signed an executive order restricting access to asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the Tucson sector, which includes much of Arizona’s border with Mexico and has the highest number of encounters along the entire southern border, migrant encounters fell by nearly half from June to July.

Cochise County, a rural county on the Arizona-Mexico border in the Tucson sector, is often at the center of the state’s immigration woes. Vance criticized Harris during his trip there for her role in managing parts of the Biden administration’s immigration portfolio.

“It’s hard to believe until you see with your own eyes how bad the Kamala Harris administration’s policies have been on the southern border,” Vance said, standing next to an unfinished section of the border wall.

Arizona has the most heavily fortified section of the southern border in the country. Under Trump, more barriers were built in Arizona than in any other state. The barriers did not stop smugglers from cutting holes in the wall in broad daylight last year, when the number of border crossings was at its highest.

Paul Perez, president of the Border Patrol Union, described wild scenes at the border. He called the wall the “Trump Wall” and the unused metal beams next to it the “Kamala Wall.”

“I’ve never seen such a chaotic border,” Perez said. “It’s completely out of control.”

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Republic reporter Perry Vandell contributed to this article.

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