DOUGLAS, Arizona — Vice President Kamala Harris toured the border wall in southern Arizona on Friday as she prepared to outbid her boss, President Biden, with an even stiffer border policy.

Top Border Patrol officials shepherded Ms. Harris around Douglas, Arizona. The section of wall was built in 2012 under the Obama administration, before former President Trump went on a building spree and construction more than 450 miles of new fencing.

Ms. Harris is expected late in the day to announce a stiffer border shutdown policy than Mr. Biden is carrying out right now.

“She will say she would put in place stronger emergency authorities than those in place as a result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s executive actions,” a campaign official said. “Specifically, she will make it harder to lift the emergency authority by requiring that the number of average border crossings achieve a further drop — below the current level of 1,500 — before the shutdown can be lifted.”

Mr. Biden in June issued an executive order declaring a border emergency that shuts down many asylum claims when apprehensions of illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol tops 2,500 a day over the course of a week. At that point, Mr. Biden says, agents have expulsion powers and do not need to engage in catch-and-release.

Ms. Harris would ratchet down the threshold, making it easier to trigger the emergency expulsion powers.

It’s similar to the Title 42 pandemic expulsion authority former President Donald Trump put in place in 2020 — and which the Biden administration limited, then removed altogether in May 2023.

The result was a record run on the border by illegal immigrants.

Since Mr. Biden’s executive order in June, the numbers have dipped again.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.