The most vivid contrasts to her policies on immigration, though, are the ones—with less than a year to go before the 2024 presidential election—Vice President Kamala Harris has grown ever more divergent from former President Donald Trump. With Harris poised to continue on with many of the Biden administration’s policies and Trump looking to return to his hardline approach, voters face a clear choice on the future direction of U.S. immigration policy.
Kamala Harris: Building up Biden's Immigration Reforms
Vice President Kamala Harris chairs the head of Biden’s administration immigration plan and pledges to push the efforts further. Of late, Harris has billed her time as Attorney General of California, having managed border security problems on something like drug smuggling and human trafficking. She addresses the immigration reform found with the basic belief that general priorities of reform are in order to be made, considering a myriad of complexities characteristic of the present U.S. immigration system. Key Policy Objectives:
Comprehensive Immigration Reform: She believes in comprehensive immigration reform that gives a pathway to citizenship for the current undocumented living in the United States. Harris further adds that special consideration due to young immigrants, mostly brought into the U.S. as children, also called the “Dreamers,” should have a faster route towards their citizenship.
Bipartisan Cooperation: Harris touted her work to reach across the aisle on immigration reform. She pointed to the introduction of a bipartisan Senate deal that called for stronger standards for asylum seekers, more resources for security at the border, and support for immigration courts, saying that it was torpedoed because Trump was hostile.
Getting to the Root Causes of Migration: As point person on immigration for Biden, Harris has become a considerable focus towards efforts designed to address the root causes of Central American migration: poverty, violence, and corruption. She says long-term solutions are necessary in order for there to be a decrease in the amount of migrants who make their way to the U.S. looking for refuge.
Donald Trump: A Return to Hardline Immigration Policies
Turning to another White House bid, former President Donald Trump vows a firmer immigration hold than he previously did during his first term in office. He’s going to try even harder if he wins.
Key Policy Objectives
Mass Deportations: Donald Trump has promised the largest ever mass deportation operation in the USA against millions of illegal immigrants. He has illustrated that it all can be done with camps and the National Guard, setting the example to influence general anti-immigrant sentiment.
Pushing back, strengthening previous policies: According to Trump, in his case, he will reinstate a good number of policies, even those in the first term, such as the Remain in Mexico program that kept asylum seekers waiting in Mexico while their cases were processed and Title 42, the public health measure used to expel migrants at the border.
Ideological screening and travel ban: Trump said he would extend the travel ban, which was initially issued to citizens from seven countries with Muslim majorities, with new restrictions to ideological screening that prohibit the entrance of those people who have been considered for “dangerous” and “extremist” views.
Ending Birthright Citizenship: Perhaps one of the more controversial proposals from Trump relates to ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are both undocumented. That would have required a constitutional amendment or a very significant re-interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
The Future of U.S. Immigration Policy
The 2024 election presents decisively contrasting choices between two starkly different visions over what U.S. immigration policy is to be. Harris zeroes in on a balanced and comprehensive reform of the pathways to citizenship and attention to the root causes of migration. In contrast, Trump’s proposals make very clear that he returned to hardline measures designed to sharply cut immigration and deportations.
The destiny of U.S. immigration policy now rests directly in the hands of voters at the electorate, with pivotal choices to be made at the ballot box in one direction or another that will affect many millions of immigrants and the future character of the country’s immigration system.
