This four-part sequence examines the candidates’ positions and coverage proposals in an effort to chop by the noise and spotlight the place Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on vital points dealing with Individuals on this election. Info 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 largest supply of political ammunition for Donald Trump towards Kamala Harris stems from the perceived inflow of immigrants coming throughout the southern U.S. border.
Whereas the vice chairman has proposed a sequence of “tough, smart solutions to secure the border” and highlighted that border crossings are literally now on the lowest degree in 4 years, Trump has continued to hammer Harris on this perceived weak spot. 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 a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris stated throughout a visit to Arizona in September. Harris used the go to to remind voters of her background as California’s lawyer 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 prime agenda merchandise shall be to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion.” The 2024 GOP Platform pledges he’ll deport hundreds of thousands of individuals. The previous president, who has been campaigning to construct a border wall for practically a decade, additionally vows to finish this development “quickly, effectively, and inexpensively. “If we don’t have a border, we don’t have a country,” based on Trump.
Kamala Harris’ immigration coverage
Kamala Harris speaks in the course of the Sept. 10 presidential debate on the Nationwide Structure Middle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political 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 vice chairman leans on a bipartisan complete strategy geared toward securing the border and fixing “our broken immigration system,” based on her marketing campaign web site.
Revive the bipartisan immigration invoice and signal it into legislation
The large $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 embrace curbing border crossings, tightening the asylum processing system, and offering sources to deal with the stream of medicine into the nation.
Listed below are some particulars Each day Kos highlighted in February after Trump and Republicans killed the invoice:
New emergency authority to limit border crossings if day by day encounters with migrants exceed a sequence of limits.
The federal government should course of a minimum of 1,400 asylum purposes a day at official ports of entry if emergency authority is triggered.
The border may be closed for as much as 270 days within the first 12 months the laws is in impact, with the variety of days declining to 180 within the third 12 months.
Harder requirements for passing the preliminary asylum interview, that means that extra candidates shall be turned again instantly.
A brand new software course of for adults supplies a right away resolution with out the case ever going to the immigration courtroom 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 expenses of human and drug trafficking crimes whereas awaiting trial.
FBI funding to establish 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 choice that suggests we must choose either between securing our border and creating a system that is orderly, safe, and humane.”
Make an earned pathway to citizenship
“We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border,” Harris stated on the DNC in August. The notion of an “earned pathway to citizenship” can also be repeated on her marketing campaign web site, however the vice chairman hasn’t supplied particulars on how that plan may take form.
Donald Trump’s immigration coverage
Donald Trump speaks at a marketing campaign rally at Madison Sq. Backyard on Oct. 27 in New York Metropolis.
Immigration is a prime subject—if not the difficulty— in Trump’s political campaigns for practically a decade. He typically emphasizes this matter, which sits atop his marketing campaign web site’s agenda objects, 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 legislation enforcement cooperates with federal authorities. He additionally pledges to strengthen ICE and “increase penalties for illegal entry and overstaying visas.”
Reinstate each border coverage of his first time period
Trump’s platform declares that “Republicans will restore every border policy of the Trump administration and halt all releases of Illegal aliens into the interior.” If this stays true, it could embrace Trump’s controversial govt orders to separate households and ban vacationers from sure international locations.
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 massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement,” based on their 2024 platform. This would come with “moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas to our own southern border,” together with deploying the U.S. Navy to create a “full fentanyl blockade” surrounding the nation.
Perform mass deportations and deny entry based mostly on politics
Trump intends to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,” based on his marketing campaign web site. However past simply focusing on immigrants, he additionally vows to implement “strict vetting” to “keep foreign Christian-hating communists, Marxists, and socialists out of America.” Trump and Republicans go even additional to be able to “make our college campuses safe and patriotic again” by pledging to deport “pro-Hamas radicals” too.
Finish Non permanent Protecting Standing for Haitian immigrants
Trump ended Non permanent Protecting Standing for Haitian immigrants in his first time period, however President Joe Biden reinstated it. Through the marketing campaign, Trump latched onto the false declare that Haitian immigrants legally within the U.S. below this system had been consuming family pets in Ohio. He then stated in an interview on Oct. 2 that he’d “absolutely” revoke the measure. “You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country,” he stated.
