Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have had to strengthen their positions on key issues like immigration as projected results show the presidential race will be historically tight between the two candidates.
During Trump’s 2016 presidential run, his immigration policies were the point of controversy. He attempted to instate a “Muslim travel ban” in 2017, which included many Muslim-majority countries. It restricted refugees from countries like Iran, Iraq and Yemen from entering the country. A U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the order after a judge temporarily halted the ban.
Harris has been criticized by both parties for her stance on immigration; Republicans claim she is soft on immigration policies and point to how she has managed the border during her vice presidency. At the same time, some Democrats don’t approve of her new anti-immigration stances, like building the border wall.
The two candidates faced off on the issue in their first and only debate in Philadelphia, where Trump famously said that with the influx of “millions and millions of people” coming into the U.S., immigrants were “eating dogs and cats.”
Donald Trump
Trump’s immigration stance has stayed largely the same for his 2016, 2020 and 2024 runs. One of the main campaign issues for Trump is immigration policy, specifically for immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump often repeats the idea that illegal immigrants commit crimes on a regular basis. The saying “Mass Deportations Now” can be seen on red, white, and blue posters at his rallies. Immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent crimes, according to a 2024 study by the National Institute of Justice.
Some of Trump’s policies for this upcoming election include heightening border security and deportation, ending catch-and-release programs, blocking funding for sanctuary jurisdictions and ending employment and benefits for undocumented residents without needing legal permission, according to Ballotpedia.
“They have to come in on a merit basis, and they will come in on a merit basis,” Trump said in a remark in 2018, during his presidency. “The communities are often left to bear the cost and the influx of people that come in illegally. We can’t allow that. There’s a limit to how many people a nation can responsibly absorb into their societies.”
If elected, Donald Trump looks to revoke visas for citizens of nations when sufficient screening is not possible and ensure that foreign countries keep previously deported citizens from coming back to the U.S., according to Ballotpedia.
Kamala Harris
Harris has touted her immigration policies during her vice presidency in her campaign. She said she doesn’t want to be seen as a continuation of Biden’s policies, instead emphasizing that she is taking her personal experience from her time as San Francisco’s District Attorney to the table in her border policy work.
She hopes to keep border crossings at low levels and bring back “the bipartisan border security bill,” or S. 4361, according to her website.
S. 4361 would establish an expedited process to decide certain asylum claims, tighten the threshold for individuals to stay in the U.S. when their asylum is pending and give emergency authority to the Department of Homeland Security to remove non-U.S. nationals within 100 miles of the southwest border.
However, she believes that the immigration system needs reform that gives immigrants a more clear pathway to citizenship.
“We’ve had a broken immigration system transcending Donald Trump’s administration, even before,” Harris said in a Fox News interview. “Let’s all be honest about that; I have no pride in saying this is a perfect immigration system. I’ve been clear, I think we all are, that it needs to be fixed.”
As California’s Attorney General, she handed in juvenile immigrants to authorities when they were arrested, but was harsh on employers who did not treat immigrant workers well, NPR reported. In recent interviews and speeches, she puts her work as Attorney General at the forefront of her immigration policies.
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