Sept. 28 (UPI) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is set to hold a fundraising event in San Francisco on Saturday while Republican opponent Donald Trump will attend a college football game in Alabama, their campaigns say.
Vice President Harris arrived in San Francisco late Friday after spending the day in Douglas, Ariz., the site of a key port of entry along the southern U.S. border, where she sought to cut into Trump’s signature issue of immigration by promising to retain and strengthen President Joe Biden’s June crackdown on asylum seekers crossing the border illegally.
“Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from reentering for five years,” Harris said. “We will pursue more severe criminal charges for repeat violators. And if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry, and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum.”
The vice president touted Department of Homeland Security statistics showing Biden’s order limiting migrant asylum entries has led to a 40% drop in unlawful crossing encounters at the U.S. southern border.
DHS said Biden’s order, coupled with a new rule issued by the Justice Department, resulted in the 7-day average for unlawful encounters dropping to 2,400 per day in June, the lowest level of encounters since Jan. 17, 2021.
Harris also sharply criticized Trump for “sabotaging” a painstakingly crafted bipartisan immigration bill that would have expanded the power of the president to use emergency authority to shut down the border to stem unauthorized border crossings once they hit a certain level.
The measure had Republican support in the House until Speaker Mike Johnson called it “dead on arrival” after Trump spoke out against it in February. Biden claimed Trump scuttled the deal to avoid handing his administration a political victory on his signature issue.
Harris on Friday vowed to resurrect the immigration bill if she is elected.
“It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades,” she said. “It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union, and it should be in effect today, producing results in real time right now for our country. But Donald Trump tanked it.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, have continually hammered Harris on the immigration issue with many polls showing the Republican ticket holding a clear advantage on the issue.
“For nearly four years, we have been living through the worst border crisis in the history of the world,” Trump said in New York on Thursday. “There’s never been anything like it, which has brought untold suffering, misery and death upon our land. The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris.”
Harris’ campaign did not reveal the location of Saturday’s private fundraising event in San Francisco but KCBS Radio reported it is likely being held at the Fairmont Hotel in the city and is expected to result in donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars as polls show Harris locked in virtual dead heat the with Trump.
The former president, meanwhile, is slated to give a speech on immigration at a high school in Prairie du Chien, Wis., followed by a visit to the Georgia-Alabama football Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The game pitting the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide against the No. 1 Bulldogs is one of the most anticipated games of the year and will be nationally television on ESPN.
It will mark the second time Trump has attended a college football game during his 2024 election campaign. He was also present a year ago in Ames, Iowa, to watch a contest between Iowa and Iowa State.
Harris, however, plans to “troll” the GOP nominee over refusing to meet her for a second debate. Campaign officials told the Washington Post that during the game, a plane will trail a banner with the words “Trump’s Punting on 2nd Debate” over the stadium.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Walz, a former high school football coach, also appeared at a college game on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the Wolverines were playing his home state Minnesota Gophers.
Walz greeted supporters at Michigan Stadium and walked onto the field before the game, embracing Gophers coach P.J. Fleck.
The visit came as Walz prepared to debate his vice president opponent Vance on Tuesday at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.
Vance had two events in Pennsylvania scheduled for Saturday, including a town hall event in Monroeville, Pa., near Pittsburgh, staged by conservative religious leaders including televangelist and political blogger Lance Wallnau.
