Will say on immigration tonight

What Harris will say on immigration tonight

From CNN's Priscilla Alvarez

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to stress an approach to immigration in her remarks Thursday that balances border security and addressing immigrants who already reside in the United States, while casting her Republican rival’s policies as extreme, according to a source familiar with the preparations.

Immigration has featured prominently in the 2024 presidential election. Democrats, grappling with years of border crises, have tried to flip the script on Republicans after the GOP blocked a bipartisan border measure this year and as the issue remains a cornerstone of former President Donald Trump’s campaign. 

On Thursday, Trump will return to the southern border to hammer the administration over border security and place the blame on Harris, falsely claiming that she was the border czar, only hours before Harris takes the stage in Chicago. 

A balanced approach to immigration, while not a novel argument, is an especially welcome one for advocates who have raised alarm over the Democratic Party’s enforcement-heavy border messaging in recent months.

The Democratic Party’s platform, released this week, revealed the shift that’s unfolded over the last year. 

In 2020, the party platform stressed the US “should be a beacon of hope for those who are suffering violence and injustice” and underscored protecting and expanding the existing asylum system, with no mention of asylum limits. 

Four years later, the platform calls for strengthening the asylum system, quickly removing those who don’t have a legal basis to remain in the US and embracing Biden’s asylum crackdown. 

Since Harris assumed the top of the ticket, allies and immigrant advocates have pushed her team to address not only border security but also the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US. The Harris campaign quickly went on the offensive on immigration in late July, citing her work prosecuting transnational gang members and the failed bipartisan border measure.