PRESCOTT VALLEY, Arizona — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for the border crisis and migrant crime in America and said her record on immigration disqualifies her from being president.
“Anyone who would import criminal gangs to occupy America cannot ask to be president,” Trump said at a rally at the Findlay Toyota Center in Arizona. “Anyone who orchestrated an invasion of America cannot lead America. Kamala Harris’s reign of terror ends the day I take the oath of office.”
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In the state that shares a 370-mile border with Mexico, the Trump campaign and Arizona Republicans are counting on concerns about illegal border crossings and immigration to drive turnout. Referring to Harris as the “border czar” for her role under President Joe Biden to address the root causes of migration, Trump painted a dire picture of an illegal immigration “occupation” in the United States.
“I think the No. 1 issue is the destruction of our country, what’s happened at the border,” Trump said.
As a result, the rally was heavy on immigration which remains a top concern for voters and one that polls show Trump has an edge over Harris. Trump brought up members of the National Border Patrol Council who endorsed Trump and the former president said he’d back legislation to give them a 10% pay raise and a $10,000 signing bonus in an effort to bring on 10,000 new agents.
Harris has campaigned on the bipartisan border legislation that failed the Senate and blamed Trump for tanking the deal to avoid a solution before Election Day. The Border Patrol union backed that bill despite Trump’s opposition, saying it would be an improvement of the status quo. The legislation would have funded about 1,500 more Customs and Border Protection personnel.
Trump attempted to invalidate Harris’s defense regarding the border situation, where a dramatic increase in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border broke records under the Biden-Harris administration.
“I listen to her saying all the time, ‘we couldn’t get a bill passed,’ well, I never had a bill — I called [Border Patrol] up and said, ‘close the border,’ there was no bill, did I have a bill? I didn’t have a bill,” Trump said. “I said close the border and the border was closed.”
Since Biden implemented an asylum executive order this summer, border encounters have fallen to the lowest levels of his presidency. Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said Sunday that Trump has a history of broken promises on the border.
“Donald Trump told us Mexico would pay for his failed border wall. That was a lie. Then he made taxpayers pay for his failed border wall,” Corridoni said. “Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he only wants to run on one. That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that would’ve secured the border, despite the fact that it was endorsed by the Border Patrol.”
Harris has sought to run as the change candidate, billing her campaign as the “new way forward” and urging voters to “turn the page” on the past. However, when asked on the “The View” this week whether she’d do anything different than Biden, Harris said she couldn’t think of anything.
“The answer that she would do nothing different is totally disqualifying,” Trump said Sunday.
In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Trump is campaigning hard on immigration, the issue that helped propel him to the White House in 2016 with the promise of building a Mexico-funded border wall to stop immigrants who are criminals and rapists from “pouring into our country.” Sunday’s rally featured news footage of citizens frightened by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua occupying an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, though officials there have pushed back on Trump’s characterization that gangs have taken over the city.
Earlier this week, Trump announced “Operation Aurora” to deport immigrant gang members, using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Trump reiterated his call for the death penalty for any illegal immigrant who kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer. He also praised former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an originator of tough-on-immigrant policies.
“I will rescue Arizona and every town across America that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said.
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Trump’s Sunday rally caps off a lively campaign week in the Grand Canyon State, which saw visits from Harris in Chandler on Thursday, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Tim Walz both campaigning on Wednesday, second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Tuesday, and first lady Jill Biden in Phoenix on Saturday.
Arizona is one of the most competitive battleground states in the country. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump leading Harris by 1 percentage point in Arizona, 48.4% to 47.4%.
