Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Immigration

The U.S. presidential election is set to be held in just fifteen days and the stakes couldn’t be higher for immigrants at the mercy of our broken immigration system.

In this blog post, we discuss where the presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on key issues relating to immigration.

What would immigration look like under the Harris administration?

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to continue many of the immigration policies proposed under President Biden. Among them, illegal immigration continues to be a hot button issue.

Illegal Immigration

Harris plans to tackle the border crisis by pushing for bipartisan legislation that would provide additional funding to hire thousands of new border patrol agents to secure our southern border.

In keeping with Biden’s proposals, Kamala also supports closing the border once border crossings have reached an average of more than 5,000 migrants per day over a week period. She has also said she will throw her support behind Biden’s policies barring asylum applications from individuals crossing the border illegally.

Since becoming Vice President, she has become tougher on illegal immigration telling CNN, “We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. And there should be consequences.”

Concerning pathways to permanent residence, she supports “an earned pathway to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants. However, no details have been provided by her campaign regarding necessary criteria to become legalized.

Legal Immigration

With respect to legal immigration, earlier this year, Harris supported bipartisan legislation that would allocate an additional 250,000 family- and employment-based visas over five years and provide green cards for children of H-1B workers.

Where Donald Trump Stands on the Issues

Illegal Immigration

If re-elected, Donald Trump has said that his administration would engage in massive deportations of illegal immigrants and deputize local law enforcement to conduct immigration raids. In an interview with Time Magazine earlier this year, he promised to deport between 15 to 20 million people.

During campaign rallies, he has said that cities with large migrant populations would be the first to be targeted, including Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado.

Border security is also a top priority for his campaign, including the recruitment of thousands of new border patrol agents, and the possible deployment of the military to secure the southern border.

Another hallmark of his campaign is his desire to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants. During his first presidential term, his administration was responsible for separating thousands of migrant children from their parents.

Legal Immigration

Under the Trump administration, the volume of requests for evidence and rate of denials issued by USCIS, particularly for H-1B high skilled workers, increased dramatically.

If Trump were to be re-elected, we would expect many of the same policies to continue.

When Harris announced her candidacy, Donald Trump softened his tone temporarily—calling for a pathway to permanent residency for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges. Recently, however Donald Trump has said such green cards would only be issued to the “most skilled graduates,” and be subject to ideological screening.

In response to conflict in the Middle East, he has vowed to revoke the student visas of those with “anti-American” and “antisemitic” views.

With respect to his infamous Muslim travel bans, he has said that if re-elected he would reinstate and expand these travel bans. He would also support a program to denaturalize immigrants who are “terrorists, criminals, sex offenders, and fraudsters.”

Unfortunately, the political climate has made it difficult for meaningful change to be made to modernize our immigration system. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, we urge you to get informed and make your voice heard at the ballot box on November 5^th.

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