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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the US-Mexico border on Friday for the first time in his 2024 presidential campaign as his Republican rival Donald Trump reinforces the message that immigrants pose a danger to the United States.

Democrat Harris will visit Douglas, Arizonaborder town of fewer than 17,000 people, with a message straight out of Trump’s playbook, hoping to convince American voters of how she can improve the status quo.

“She has long believed that we need an immigration system that is safe, fair, orderly and humane, a stark contrast to the divisive and dangerous policies of Donald Trump,” said a Harris campaign adviser. Harris plans to discuss proposals for “the toughest bipartisan border security plan in a generation”.

About 7 million migrants have been apprehended illegally crossing the border between the United States and Mexico under Harris and President Joe Biden, according to government data, a record number that has fueled criticism of Trump.

Border crossings have dropped sharply since Biden announced his asylum ban earlier this year.

Trump and his vice presidential running mate, J.D. Vance, have stepped up their criticism of immigrants in recent weeks, repeating lies about legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio and suggesting that immigrants commit crimes and take jobs.

Immigration is a top issue for voters. Arizona is a hotly contested state, with large numbers of Latino voters sought after by both parties. And the country’s southern border remains a major trafficking point for fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.

On Friday, Trump blamed Harris for the growing trend of illegal immigration.

“The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump said at Trump Tower. “She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would simply ask why he didn’t do this in four years? It’s a very simple question.”

The sweeping border security bill, which took months to debate, was blocked by the US Senate in February after Trump pressured Republicans to reject any deal.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 43% of voters backed Trump on immigration, while 33% favored Harris, while 24% didn’t know whether they chose someone else or refused to vote.

Harris was California’s attorney general before being elected U.S. senator and then vice president. His mandate in California included fighting gangs that operate on both sides of the border and traffic drugs, weapons and people.

Biden has also tasked Harris with addressing the root causes of emigration from Central America, a diplomatic issue on which she has a mixed record.

Emigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to the United States has sparked unrest among voters concerned about what the trend means for the American economy, crime rates and culture. Between 2010 and 2023, the share of foreign-born U.S. residents increased by nearly one-fifth, to 47.8 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.