Vice President Harris is now reportedly embracing the idea of building a wall on the southern border to help curb illegal immigration. 

Axios notes that Ms. Harris has expressed support for a bipartisan border security bill which allocates an estimated $650 million to construct a wall, despite previously denouncing such a proposal. In 2017, she called a border wall a “medieval vanity project,” and in 2020, she insisted it was “a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.”

During her speech accepting her party’s presidential nomination last week, Ms. Harris said she knows the “importance of safety and security, especially at our border.” She vowed to revive the bill and sign it into law if she is elected president in November. Senate Republicans killed the bill in February following pressure from President Trump.

Ms. Harris’ campaign has sought to downplay the report that she has changed her tune on the wall by noting the bill does not provide new funds for a barrier. Instead, they point out it provides an extension for the deadline to use funds previously allocated for construction of the wall. 

She has not personally addressed her specific position on a border wall, however, as she has largely avoided answering questions from reporters in the 37 days since she became the Democrats’ presidential candidate.

When the bipartisan border security legislation was first introduced, one of the lawmakers who helped negotiate it, Senator Murphy, called it “aggressive” and said it uses “bold new tools to get control of the border for the first time in a long time.” Still, he insisted it does not “deviate from our nation’s core values.” 

While Mr. Murphy did not emphasize the wall funding, Senator Lankford, a key lawmaker in crafting the bill, told Axios the legislation “requires the Trump border wall.”

“It is in the bill itself that it sets the standards that were set during the Trump administration: Here’s where it will be built. Here’s how it has to be built, the height, the type, everything during the Trump construction,” he added.

On top of expressing support for the border security bill, a Harris campaign ad seeking to cast the vice president as a candidate who supports strong immigration measures features several shots of the existing border wall while vowing she would “hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

Despite her support for the border bill, the Trump campaign is trying to create doubt that she will support stronger border security measures.

In a statement Tuesday, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “How much longer will the mainstream media allow Kamala Harris to hide and use staff to speak on her behalf? It’s DAY 37 of ZERO interviews and Kamala’s anonymous campaign sources are now claiming she supports President Trump’s border wall — this is a preposterous and false claim.”

“Kamala’s RECORD proves she is pro-open border,” she continued. “As a senator, Kamala tried to block President Trump’s construction of the border wall. As Border Czar, Kamala Harris halted construction of the border wall.”

Ms. Harris’ apparent flip-flop on the merits of a border wall comes as polls have found the situation at the southern border is a key issue in the election. A Fox News poll conducted between August 9 and 12 found that 56 percent of respondents said Trump would handle immigration better, while 42 percent said the same of Ms. Harris. 

The poll result comes as illegal border crossings fell to their lowest level in four years in July. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 56,408 illegal crossings last month, down from the all-time single month high of 249,740 in December.

Republicans have tried to link Ms. Harris to the surge of illegal border crossings that took place on her and President Biden’s watch. For weeks, they have tried to stick her with the label “border tsar,” which was used by the press but was never an official title, to blame her for the situation at the border. 

The title refers to Mr. Biden’s decision to tap her to improve conditions in Central America and discourage people from migrating to America. She was not, however, tasked with securing the border.