Trump and Kamala’s proposals on immigration

Immigration is one of the main issues likely to influence this year’s US elections, scheduled for November 5, with former Republican President Donald Trump and current White House Vice President, Democrat Kamala Harris, as contenders.

Although both sides argue in their speeches that they want to increase border security in order to curb the current migration crisis, the candidates have different views on the measures that should be implemented.

Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s replacement in the election race, faces strong criticism for having been chosen by him to manage the catastrophic situation at the border – in December 2023 alone, the US registered a record of more than 300,000 illegal entries. The monthly average from 2013 to 2019 was 39,000.

The Democrat was even nicknamed by Republicans as the “border czar”, a title that the American press tried to disassociate from the candidate. Her role was to identify the “root causes” that lead to mass migration in Central America and negotiate with neighboring countries to contain the entry of foreigners across the border, but this plan was unsuccessful.

Since Harris first visited Central America, official data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 7 million illegal immigrants, including 750,000 Guatemalans.

The number of Salvadorans and Hondurans has also soared. In the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, nearly twice as many migrants from those countries attempted to enter the U.S. illegally compared with the same period under Donald Trump (2017-2021), who struck deals with Central American governments requiring asylum seekers to process their asylum in their own country or face deportation upon reaching the U.S. border.

These Republican negotiations helped the country manage the influx of illegal immigrants at the border. However, weeks after the Biden-Harris administration took office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended those agreements.

On her campaign website, the Democratic presidential candidate says the current immigration system is “broken” and needs comprehensive reform. The measures she advocates include “strong border security and an earned path to citizenship,” referring to undocumented foreigners already residing in the United States.

In 2020, during her first attempt to run for president, Harris promised to close immigration detention centers, limit deportations and “fight” for immigrants to gain US citizenship.

Now, she is backing a bipartisan deal that has been hammered out in Congress that aims to close loopholes in the asylum process and give the president more discretion to close the border when crossings are overwhelmed. She said at the Democratic National Convention last month that she would sign the bipartisan border bill into law.

Since replacing Biden, Harris has not detailed some of her immigration policies, such as whether politically motivated asylum seekers would continue to have that benefit.

On the other hand, Donald Trump chose immigration as his main issue even before he was elected Republican Party representative. Since announcing his interest in reelection, he has promised to carry out the largest deportation in the history of the country and has mentioned his plans for the border at almost every campaign rally.

Last week, he said that this plan would begin in Springfield, Ohio, and head to Venezuela. According to the former president, the increase in violence in the US is directly related to the entry of illegal immigrants.

In his plan, the Republican advocates redeploying military troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, building additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities and repealing the 1997 Flores Agreement, which established national standards for the humane treatment of children in U.S. custody at the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS).

He also said that in a new White House term he would end Joe Biden’s parole programs, which allow immigrants to enter and remain in the United States temporarily if they are applying for admission, and to obtain work authorization. More than 1 million people were authorized to enter the United States through the Democratic administration’s programs.

Furthermore, the presidential candidate has already stated that he intends to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants who entered the country illegally, in addition to deporting and revoking visas of foreign students who have been involved in demonstrations against Israel.

In his statements, Trump announced only one policy that would encourage migration to the country: granting automatic visas (green cards) to graduates who are not citizens but studied at American colleges and universities.