TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Democrats continue to rally around Kamala Harris to be their nominee for President.
Republicans are heating up their attacks on her record, specifically her role with immigration.
At the Republican National Convention, even before President Biden announced he is withdrawing from the race, Donald Trump’s allies continued attacking Harris' border record.
“Appointing Kamala Harris to be your border czar is like appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan," Republican Congressman from Florida Matt Gaetz said.
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake has also used the 'border czar' label to describe Harris, tweeting the phrase six times over the last year.
The term is an exaggeration of Harris' immigration assignment given to her by President Biden, but Harris was told to go and try to reduce the number of people coming to the U.S. illegally.
As illegal immigration rose in 2021, Biden announced she would be taking on a bigger role with immigration, specifically asking her to address "root causes" in Mexico and Central America. President Biden did not ask her to change border enforcement or address migration from far away countries.
“She’s the most qualified person to do it," President Biden said on March 24, 2021.
A few months later in Guatemala Vice President Harris sent a direct message to migrants.
“Do not come," she said on June 7, 2021.
But they did come, in record numbers.
There have been 10 million migrant arrests reported by Border Patrol during the Biden-Harris administration, and over one million 'gotaways', people Border Patrol see on camera but never apprehend.
In 2022, after Roe v Wade was overturned, Harris’s focus shifted to reproductive rights.
In the meantime, there has been a change at the border in Arizona.
Since President Biden’s executive order limiting asylum, border volunteers are seeing fewer people crossing.
“Word is spreading across the world that it is getting harder to cross," Gail Kocourek said.
They are still coming. Not far from the wall I find camouflage carpet boots used to cover tracks, and Cartel smugglers watch Border Patrol from a hill in Mexico.
Kocourek travels the border to restock camps along the wall. She's done it for a decade, through three different presidencies.
She says solving the border issue will only happen with bipartisan cooperation, rather than through executive orders.
“I think it makes a lot more sense to have immigration reform," Kocourek said.
Despite the decrease in illegal immigration, over the next 100 days Kocourek only expects the political rhetoric around asylum seekers to become more intense.
“I’m sad. Because sometimes I think the only people they’re going to meet that are going to be nice to them are the people that meet them at the border," she said.
Even with the recent downturn, historically speaking, numbers still remain very high.
The Tucson Sector leads all nine southern border sectors with over 420 thousand apprehensions this fiscal year.