Republicans accuse Kamala Harris of changing her stance on the border

Republicans are accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of flip-flopping after she confirmed her support for an immigration plan that includes expanding the U.S. southern border wall.

Last week at the Democratic National Convention , Harris said that she would sign such a bill if elected president. The deal, which faltered in the Senate earlier this year, was a collaboration between the Biden-Harris administration and congressional Republicans and represents one of the strictest approaches to illegal immigration in recent years.

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Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma and a key architect of the deal, criticized Harris for what he called a “flip-flop.” He told Axios , “It requires the Trump border wall,” citing provisions in the bill that adhere to the standards set during the Trump era, including specifics on construction and design. Lankford’s office confirmed that the deal sets aside $650 million for the wall—a significant cut from the $18 billion that President Donald Trump had requested in 2018.

Harris supported an expansion to the southern border wall while serving as Biden's vice president but did not beforehand. As a U.S. Senator from California, she denounced the wall as a "medieval vanity project" and vowed to block its funding. In 2019, she dismissed the project, and in early 2020, she criticized it on social media as a "complete waste of taxpayer money."

Trumpworld follows Lankford’s lead, attacks Harris’ stance

The Trump campaign has also seized on Harris' statement. Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the former president’s campaign, criticized Harris for avoiding direct interviews and relying on staff to address the issue. “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,” Leavitt said in a statement .

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller described it as “total bulls---” and said Harris “hasn’t flip-flopped on anything,” according to Fox News.

“Harris opposes the wall, has always opposed the wall, and stopped wall construction as V.P.,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump has also made the U.S.-Mexico border a central issue, mainly due to his influence in shaping its narrative. Earlier this year, Senate Republicans, following Trump’s lead, rejected the bipartisan border security bill introduced by Senators James Lankford, Kyrsten Sinema and Chris Murphy.

Trump commented on the bill’s defeat: “I think we killed it. I think it’s dead! But you can never say it because bad bills always come back to life because these guys make a lot of money with bad bills.”

Jeremy Yurow is a politics reporting fellow based in Hawaii for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at JYurow@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter @JeremyYurow

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republicans accuse Kamala Harris of changing her stance on the border