Vice President Harris is set to visit the southern border on Friday while on a trip to Arizona, in what will be her first border visit since accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

The trip comes as immigration has consistently been a prominent issue in the leadup to the presidential contest — and one that voters often trust President Trump on more than Ms. Harris. CNN polling released this week — which found immigration to be the third-most important issue to voters — indicates that among likely voters, Trump is leading on the immigration issue by 14 percentage points — 49 percent say they trust Trump more to handle it, while only 35 percent back Harris on the issue. 

Ms. Harris is expected to highlight her work cracking down on transnational gangs, portray Trump as “divisive” and “dangerous,” and blame Trump for killing a bipartisan border bill earlier this year, according to a campaign aide cited in multiple news reports.

Yet some observers say the trip will only serve to highlight a border crisis that escalated under the Biden-Harris administration. 

“I actually would advise against it,” a pollster, Frank Luntz, told CNN of the upcoming trip, adding that “her time to have gone to the border was last year or the year before that, and now it only highlights the fact that she hasn’t really focused on this issue even though she had some, we can’t determine what, the actual responsibility was that she had in the administration because it’s been muddied.”

Immigration is an area where Trump should tell voters to “just look at the numbers,” Mr. Luntz added.

“Look at the immigration statistics, look at the illegal immigration that took place under his administration and under the Biden-Harris administration,” he said, while criticizing Trump for focusing on the wrong issues — such as claiming Haitian migrants are eating dogs and cats — in his campaigning.

For Ms. Harris, Mr. Luntz added, “Going to the border is only going to remind voters that things have gotten worse over the last three and a half years.”

Trump was quick to slam the upcoming border trip, arguing that she was trying to “con the public” into thinking the Biden-Harris administration has done a good job securing the border. 

“After almost four years, Border Tsar Kamala Harris has decided, for political reasons, that it’s time for her to go to our broken Southern Border,” Trump said in a statement. “What a disgrace that she waited so long, allowing millions of people to enter our Country from prisons, mental institutions, and criminal cells all over the World, not just South America, many of those coming are terrorists, and at a level never seen before!”

Ms. Harris’s first and only trip to the border during her time in office was slightly more than three years ago, in June 2021. Republicans have been calling Ms. Harris “border tsar” since President Biden tasked her in March 2021 with “stemming the migration to our southern border,” although there’s since been heated debate and confusion about the exact roles and responsibilities she bears when it comes to the border crisis. 

Ms. Harris, for her part, acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle that the immigration system was “broken” and “needs to be fixed,” but blamed it on Republicans for blocking the border deal. 

“Donald Trump got word of the bill, realized it was going to fix a problem he wanted to run on and told them to kill the bill, don’t put it up for a vote,” Ms. Harris said in the interview. “He killed a bill that would have actually been a solution, because he wants to run on a problem, instead of fixing a problem.” 

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request from the Sun for comment about the upcoming border visit.