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DOUGLAS, Arizona — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris went on the offensive during a campaign stop here Friday, hammering opponent Donald Trump for “abdication of leadership� on immigration reform, while promising harsher penalties against asylum seekers who repeatedly attempt to enter the U.S. between ports of entry.

“I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry,� said Vice President Harris, speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of more than 300 gathered at the Cochise College Douglas Campus’ gymnasium. “We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators, and if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal port of entry, and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum. … While we understand many people are desperate to migrate to the United States, our system must be orderly and secure.�

Human rights advocates have decried Harris’ doubling down on President Joe Biden’s executive order severely restricting asylum access, which advocates say violates U.S. and international asylum law and jeopardizes migrants’ lives. The restrictions, implemented in June, already face a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Under current law, it is legal to request asylum once on U.S. soil, regardless of how one entered the country.

Harris touted immigrants’ contributions to the U.S. and emphasized the need for more pathways for legal immigration.

“The United States has been enriched by generations of people who come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and to become part of the American story,� she said.

She pledged to give Dreamers and undocumented residents a pathway to citizenship.

“I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border, or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane,� she said. “We can and we must do both.�

She said that as California attorney general 10 years ago, she gathered a bipartisan group of attorneys general to meet with law enforcement in Mexico City, aiming “to increase intelligence-sharing on gang activity, all of which allowed us to prosecute more human traffickers,� she said.

Harris criticized what she called Trump’s failure to make progress on immigration reform during his presidency.

“He did not solve the shortage of immigration judges, he did not solve the shortage of border agents, he did not create lawful pathways into our nation,� she said. “As overdoses went up during his presidency, he fought to slash funding for the fight against fentanyl.�

She condemned Trump’s efforts to “tank� the border-security bill earlier this year, which would have added 1,500 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers to the border, 4,300 asylum officers, and 100 high-tech scanners to detect fentanyl, which is mostly smuggled through legal ports of entry by U.S. citizens.

“It was the strongest border-security bill we have seen in decades. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union, and it should be in effect today,� Harris said. “But Donald Trump tanked it. He picked up the phone and called some friends in Congress and said, ‘Stop the bill.’ Because he prefers to run on a problem, instead of fixing a problem.�

The Trump campaign criticized Harris’ “last-minute trip� to the border and “empty calls for more security� so soon before the Nov. 5 election.

“Over the past four years as Vice President, Kamala laughed when asked why she hadn’t visited the border, denied the existence of a crisis, and pushed for mass amnesty,� said campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a written statement. “Throughout her entire career, Kamala has fought against more funding for Border Patrol, called to abolish ICE, and voted against construction of President Trump’s border wall. The American people will not be deceived by Kamala’s political games — they are smart enough to realize Kamala Harris has been in charge of the border for four years and she has failed.�

Harris’ campaign appearance came after a visit Friday to the border and to the Douglas port of entry, where Customs and Border Protection officers spoke of the need for more resources, while praising a planned modernization and expansion of the port, she said.

On Thursday Douglas Mayor Donald Huish said Harris would see the reality of a small border town while in Douglas — which he said has deep cultural and economic ties to its sister city across the border, Agua Prieta — rather than the “sensationalized� version often depicted in the media.

“A lot of positive things are happening here. We are a safe community,� Huish said of Douglas, a Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County.

The Douglas port of entry received about $420 million through the bipartisan infrastructure law, signed by Biden, to modernize the existing port and build a new commercial port — with high-tech scanning equipment to detect smuggling activity — which will boost border security and streamline personal and commercial travel, Huish said.

“I know she supports those issues,� Huish said. “The positives of investing in the border can be seen here.�

Harris was introduced by five speakers, including Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Huish.

“She has spent her career taking on and prosecuting violent criminals and making our communities safer, and she will do that as our next president,� Mayes said.

While introducing Harris, Tori Verber Salazar, a Republican and former district attorney in San Joaquin County, California, recalled asking then-AG Harris for help tackling transnational drug trafficking.

“I said, ‘I need some help. My county is struggling.’ She said, ‘Bring me a plan,’� Salazar said. The additional resources and support had a rapid impact on drug seizures and arrests, she said.

“We were busting the guys on the street and we were busting the king pins,� Salazar said. “I can never thank her enough for what she did for my community.�

Harris promised Friday to double resources for the Department of Justice to “extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations� and to tackle the global fentanyl supply chain, disrupting the flow of chemicals from China.

She also sought to highlight the steep decline in arrests at the southern border, which she attributed to the Biden administration’s new restrictions since June on access to asylum.

The policy has resulted in large numbers of rapid deportations and has helped bring Border Patrol apprehensions down to the lowest levels in years, as has aggressive immigration enforcement in Mexico.

But the asylum policy has a human toll, advocates say.

The policy “strands vulnerable refugee families in Mexico where they are targeted for horrific harm and punishes those who attempt to seek protection by summarily deporting many without a screening on their asylum claims and barring others from asylum,� said Christina Asencio of nonprofit Human Rights First, which authored a July on human rights violations stemming from the policy. “These punitive policies cause irreparable harm to human lives, violate U.S. law and treaties and have consequences to refugee protection globally.�

In a Friday statement, Arizona GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani called Harris’ border visit a “photo opportunity to try and score political points.�

“For three and a half years, the vice president has been in a position to address this crisis but instead she has ignored it,� the statement said. “Our communities have become less safe and vulnerable people are being exploited by coyotes, human smugglers, drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.�

In August, Republican presidential nominee Trump held a media event at the border wall in Cochise County, near Coronado National Memorial, the same site where his running mate JD Vance visited in July.

A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration, the AP reported. The poll also found that Republicans are more likely to care about immigration.

Trump has largely centered his campaign on border security and demonizing immigrants, vowing to use the military to carry out “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.� Experts say the promised mass deportations would upend the economy and potentially separate more then 4 million U.S.-born children from their undocumented parents.

Trump and Vance continue to attack Harris for her work as the so-called “border czar,� falsely saying her role was to manage the southern border, which is the jurisdiction of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

In 2021 Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes of migration from Mexico and Central American countries by working with their governments to improve economic conditions.

Reforms that bolster ports of entry, as well as provide legal pathways for asylum seekers and economic immigrants, are the best way to improve border security, said Mark Adams, co-coordinator for Frontera de Cristo, a binational ministry based in Douglas and Agua Prieta.

With Harris, “you might get some nods to that,� Adams said Thursday. “It’s just disappointing that we as a nation have been guided by fear, where it seems like the politically expedient thing to do is not to talk about real solutions.�