TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will call for tighter asylum and border control measures for when ports of entry are shut in a speech later on Friday in Arizona, a campaign official said.
Under an asylum ban measure adopted by President Joe Biden in June, migrants caught crossing illegally can be quickly deported or turned back to Mexico when the daily average of border arrests tops 2,500 over a week.
Harris is expected to propose to change the formula so the ban kicks in when a lower number of people cross illegally.
Specifically, she wants to make it harder to lift the emergency authority by requiring that the number of average border crossings achieve a further drop – below the current level of 1,500 – before the shutdown can be lifted, the officials said.
Harris will detail the changes in a speech in the border town of Douglas, Arizona.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, writing by Eric Beech; Editing by David Ljunggren)
