Trump vs. Harris: Two Visions for America's Immigration Future

By: Anthony Maiorca

Published Sept 5, 2024

Immigration has become one of the most controversial topics in modern-day America over the past 10 years. Some blame the rhetoric of former president Donald Trump for the heightened debate about the topic. However, immigration policies did not begin when he took office; they went back to the 1700s when the Naturalization Act was passed. Due to the United States always being a country filled with immigrants, there have always been heated arguments on immigration, and almost every ethnic group has been targeted throughout the history of the United States. Regardless of whether or not this is a new issue, immigration policy remains one of the most important policy points that many voters look to when deciding who to vote for President. 

Conducted in 2022

Donald Trump launched himself to the top of the ballot in 2016 when he first started publicly announcing his views on immigration. To many Americans, the Mexico-American border was an issue that many Democrats were not taking seriously enough. Now, immigration policies are Donald Trump’s go-to talking point when campaigning. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration enacted 472 changes “that dismantled and reconstructed many elements of the U.S. immigration system”. Trump wasted no time waiting for Congress to pass legislation so he took to executive orders to fulfill his promises of fixing the border problems. The policy that gained attention around Trump most was his talks of building a wall between Mexico and the US. Trump did go on to build the 3-mile wall but it was riddled with problems and according to the Texas Tribune, already is showing signs of falling. While in office, Trump didn't exclusively look at the US-Mexico border when addressing immigration, creating a travel ban that would impact the travel between the US and multiple Muslim-majority countries. Trying to show voters that he would take a wide range of approaches to deal with immigration. 

U.S.- Mexico Border

Although Kamala Harris still has no policy outlines on her website, she has made many claims about immigration through interviews with the media. Harris is taking a different stance on immigration than most Democratic Presidential nominees have in the past. It appears that she is taking a middle-of-ground approach as she insists that there are problems with America's southern border and the illegal flow of migrants needs to be stopped. Since Trump was elected President, the main talking point from the Democrats was about reversing Trump's policies on immigration.

However, Harris seems to be fighting for the swing votes by acknowledging that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Harris stated at the DNC that she wanted to “bring back the bipartisan border security bill that [Donald Trump] killed” which tells voters that she would do something to address the illegal flow of immigrants into the US. This is a drastically different stance than Harris had back in 2020 when first trying to secure her nomination as a Presidential candidate. During that time, Harris was firm on wanting to decriminalize illegal border crossings, blocking crucial funding for the border wall, and reforming ICE.

Between both Presidential nominees, it seems that there is agreement that immigration is an important issue in America today that needs to be addressed. While Kamala Harris has been seen to change stances on immigration over the past few years, Trump's stance has remained relatively unchanged. This alludes to the fact that regardless of what either nominee actually thinks about immigration, they know that acknowledging that there is a problem will secure them much-needed votes during the election. Voters should be prepared to hear further policy ideas from both sides as we get closer to the general election.