Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly named running mate is giving former President Donald Trump even more fodder to attack his Democratic rival as being weak on immigration — an issue that’s a top concern for many Americans in this presidential election.
The Trump campaign and Republicans are pointing to several laws that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed last year that open state services and benefits to undocumented immigrants as examples of the Harris-Walz campaign’s “radical left” policies.
“This is a guy who wants to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens,” JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential hopeful, said of Walz at a campaign stop in Michigan on Wednesday, while stressing that Trump will stop the influx of migrants into the US. “This is a radical human being who comes from the far-left wing of the Democratic Party.”
Early in a news conference on Thursday, Trump slammed Walz on immigration, saying the governor doesn’t want to have borders or any form of safety for the US. His comments followed a video the GOP posted on X showing both Harris and Walz expressing support for sanctuary states and cities, with Walz saying that if the definition of a sanctuary state is that the federal government enforces immigration law and local law enforcement handles local laws, he agrees with it.
The Trump campaign will use Walz, who has implemented an array of progressive policies as governor, as a way to draw even starker contrasts between the candidates and to highlight her perceived vulnerability — that she’s a San Francisco liberal, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist.
