This four-part collection examines the candidates’ positions and coverage proposals in an effort to chop by way of the noise and spotlight the place Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on vital points dealing with People on this election. Data is sourced from marketing campaign web sites and what the candidates have stated on the path and in interviews.
All through the 2024 presidential marketing campaign, maybe the most important supply of political ammunition for Donald Trump in opposition to Kamala Harris stems from the perceived inflow of immigrants coming throughout the southern U.S. border.
Whereas the vp has proposed a collection of “powerful, good options to safe the border” and highlighted that border crossings are literally now on the lowest stage in 4 years, Trump has continued to hammer Harris on this perceived weak point. Nevertheless, Harris vocally helps reviving bipartisan laws to spice up border spending and safety—a invoice that Trump and his Republican cronies killed.
“[Trump] prefers to run on an issue as an alternative of fixing an issue,” Harris stated throughout a visit to Arizona in September. Harris used the go to to remind voters of her background as California’s legal professional normal, emphasizing her efforts to fight crime alongside the border and her expertise prosecuting gangs concerned in intercourse and drug trafficking.
Trump’s marketing campaign web site declares his high agenda merchandise might be to “seal the border and cease the migrant invasion.” The 2024 GOP Platform pledges he’ll deport thousands and thousands of individuals. The previous president, who has been campaigning to construct a border wall for almost a decade, additionally vows to finish this building “shortly, successfully, and inexpensively. “If we don’t have a border, we don’t have a rustic,” in accordance with Trump.
Kamala Harris’ immigration coverage
“The American individuals deserve a president who cares extra about border safety than taking part in political video games,” Harris stated throughout her go to to the U.S. border in Arizona. Whereas Trump has zeroed in on the border to assault Harris all through the marketing campaign, the vp leans on a bipartisan complete method aimed toward securing the border and fixing “our damaged immigration system,” in accordance with her marketing campaign web site.
Revive the bipartisan immigration invoice and signal it into regulation
The huge $118 billion invoice, which additionally contains funding for quite a lot of worldwide safety and protection applications, earmarks greater than $20 billion for U.S. border enhancements. These embody curbing border crossings, tightening the asylum processing system, and offering sources to deal with the circulate of medicine into the nation.
Listed below are some particulars Every day Kos highlighted in February after Trump and Republicans killed the invoice:
New emergency authority to limit border crossings if each day encounters with migrants exceed a collection of limits.
The federal government should course of at the least 1,400 asylum functions a day at official ports of entry if emergency authority is triggered.
The border might be closed for as much as 270 days within the first yr the laws is in impact, with the variety of days declining to 180 within the third yr.
Harder requirements for passing the preliminary asylum interview, which means that extra candidates might be turned again instantly.
A brand new utility course of for adults supplies an instantaneous choice with out the case ever going to the immigration court docket system.
Funding for extra immigration judges to extend the capability of immigration courts.
Funding to the U.S. Marshall Service to offer housing for these held on fees of human and drug trafficking crimes whereas awaiting trial.
FBI funding to determine potential criminals amongst these in search of entry, together with expanded DNA testing.
Improve and add extra border safety
Harris spoke with border safety leaders throughout her journey to Arizona and pledged further assist. The bipartisan invoice, which she goals to revive as president, would have added 1,500 new brokers and invested in applied sciences to assist detect and intercept medication like fentanyl being introduced into the nation. Throughout her go to, she additionally highlighted the “false alternative that implies we should select both between securing our border and making a system that’s orderly, secure, and humane.”
Make an earned pathway to citizenship
“We will create an earned pathway to citizenship and safe our border,” Harris stated on the DNC in August. The notion of an “earned pathway to citizenship” can be repeated on her marketing campaign web site, however the vp hasn’t supplied particulars on how that plan may take form.
Donald Trump’s immigration coverage
Immigration is a high situation—if not the difficulty— in Trump’s political campaigns for almost a decade. He usually emphasizes this subject, which sits atop his marketing campaign web site’s agenda gadgets, at his rallies and riles up his supporters with xenophobic and racist rhetoric.
Cease the migrant invasion
Trump has stated he’ll reinstate hardline border insurance policies, together with a program requiring migrants to stay in Mexico whereas their asylum circumstances are reviewed. He additionally pledges to militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and use the Nationwide Guard to arrest migrants crossing into the nation unlawfully. Moreover, his platform states that Republicans need to reduce federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities until native regulation enforcement cooperates with federal authorities. He additionally pledges to strengthen ICE and “enhance penalties for unlawful entry and overstaying visas.”
Reinstate each border coverage of his first time period
Trump’s platform declares that “Republicans will restore each border coverage of the Trump administration and halt all releases of Unlawful aliens into the inside.” If this stays true, it could embody Trump’s controversial government orders to separate households and ban vacationers from sure nations.
Full the wall and militarize the U.S. border
Past Trump’s ongoing quest to complete the border wall, the previous president and Republicans need to “shift large parts of federal regulation enforcement to immigration enforcement,” in accordance with their 2024 platform. This would come with “transferring 1000’s of troops at present stationed abroad to our personal southern border,” together with deploying the U.S. Navy to create a “full fentanyl blockade” surrounding the nation.
Perform mass deportations and deny entry primarily based on politics
Trump intends to “perform the most important deportation operation in American historical past,” in accordance with his marketing campaign web site. However past simply concentrating on immigrants, he additionally vows to implement “strict vetting” to “preserve overseas Christian-hating communists, Marxists, and socialists out of America.” Trump and Republicans go even additional with the intention to “make our school campuses secure and patriotic once more” by pledging to deport “pro-Hamas radicals” too.
Finish Short-term Protecting Standing for Haitian immigrants
Trump ended Short-term Protecting Standing for Haitian immigrants in his first time period, however President Joe Biden reinstated it. Throughout the marketing campaign, Trump latched onto the false declare that Haitian immigrants legally within the U.S. beneath this system had been consuming family pets in Ohio. He then stated in an interview on Oct. 2 that he’d “completely” revoke the measure. “It’s important to take away the individuals, and you must carry them again to their very own nation,” he stated.
