Where Harris and Trump stand on immigration and the border
Vice President Harris and former President Trump have had some of their most intense battles of the campaign trail on how each would handle immigration and the border.
Trump has made immigration and the border central to his campaign — often jumping to draw attention to the issue during debates even when asked about other topics.
He’s made sweeping calls for the National Guard and local police to conduct mass deportations, saying his second term would carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Those pledges have been paired with a number of false claims about migrants, including the promotion of a conspiracy theory that accused Haitian migrants of abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Harris, for her part, has embraced restrictions at the border that previously have been eschewed by Democrats, stressing the need to maintain limits on asylum even as she’s called for a pathway to citizenship for some migrants.
Here’s where Harris and Trump come down on the issues of the border and immigration.
A spiked Senate border deal defines candidate commitments
Harris has aligned herself with a failed bipartisan border deal that was rejected by Trump.
That deal introduced new limits on asylum, since imposed by the Biden administration, cutting off access to protections from persecution if a certain number of migrants cross the border between ports of entry.
The bill also would have funneled $20 billion to surge resources to the border, including to hire 1,500 more agents — something an already-strapped Border Patrol sees as key to securing the border.
The legislation came as the result of a demand from Republicans to require a border security bill in exchange for foreign aid and was drafted in part by conservative Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
But months of negotiations evaporated almost immediately when Trump criticized the legislation, calling it a “great gift to the Democrats.”
“You know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said kill the bill. And you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris said during the September debate.
Trump has said that on Day 1 in office he would take a similar track to the bill he killed, barring migrants from seeking asylum if they cross between ports of entry.
He has also pledged to give border agents a 10 percent raise and to hire 10,000 more border officers.
Trump has said he would impose a number of restrictions on immigration, like ending birthright citizenship for those not born to American parents. He also pledged to suspend “chain” migration, which allows citizens to petition to bring relatives to the U.S. Chain migration is how former first lady Melania Trump’s parents became citizens.
Trump has also said he would revoke the temporary status that allows Haitian migrants to remain in the U.S., like he did with migrants from other countries while in office, and would also pause all refugee admissions.
4 years of immigration policy under Trump
The clearest picture of Trump’s stance on immigration comes from his four years in office, where he pushed a number of policies — many killed in court — that restrict immigration.
Trump pledged a “total and complete shut down of Muslims” entering the country — something his administration attempted over three executive orders, of which the first two were halted by the courts.
Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security instituted the family separation policy, taking some roughly 4,000 children from their parents. As of April, more than 1,000 children had still yet to be reunited with their parents.
He also instituted the Remain in Mexico policy, forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their asylum claim was adjudicated, regardless of their country of origin and further complicating their access to a U.S.-based immigration court system.
Refugee processing also fell sharply under Trump, with the administration lowering its refugee processing goal every single year he was in office.
Trump also tried to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that provides work authorization to undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children.
The Trump administration also expanded the definition of a “public charge,” essentially limiting immigration pathways for those who relied — or might rely — on public assistance programs.
And he pushed to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, though only 52 miles of the 458 constructed under his presidency were new structures, rather than replacements.
On asylum, an overlap
While Trump has been highly critical of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border, both oversaw significant restrictions on asylum.
Trump ignited Title 42 in 2020, pointing to the pandemic to justify a process that barred migrants from seeking asylum.
But the policy was not an effective immigration tool — the lack of penalties for crossing the border prompted many migrants to repeatedly seek to do so. It also contravened U.S. and international law, which protects the right to seek asylum.
Despite its lack of effectiveness, President Biden kept the order in place for some time, expelling more migrants using Title 42 than Trump ever did.
Biden lifted the policy in May of last year, but he also limited the ability to seek asylum after crossing the border between ports of entry — a method of seeking asylum provided for under the law.
The policy was short-lived due to court battles, however, and the Biden-Harris administration then implemented by rulemaking key facets of the failed bipartisan border plan.
A rule finalized last month cut off access to asylum for those who crossed between ports of entry if border figures ticked above a 2,500 average over the course of a week.
Asylum processing then only kicks off once again when daily border crossings average below 1,500 for 28 conservative days.
It’s a policy the Biden administration sees as a success — border crossing figures have fallen since the first iteration of the policy was implemented in June. But the policy has been criticized as cruel and illegal by immigration groups stressing the legal right to seek asylum.
Harris’s record in office and as a candidate
Harris has said her administration would not just be a continuation of the Biden presidency and has broadly stressed that she backs a system that includes restrictions at the border paired with pathways for immigration.
“I reject the false choice that suggests we must choose either between securing our border and creating a system that is orderly, safe and humane,” Harris said during a September trip to the border.
“We can and we must do both.”
That was largely the concept of Harris’s role in leading efforts to curb migration from Central America, which kicked off investments throughout the region to improve economies and tackle crime and corruption.
Harris struck a more open tone on immigration as a 2020 candidate — a contrast in some ways from what played out in the Biden White House and from what she’s said on the 2024 campaign trail.
In 2020, Harris said she would close detention centers and push for a path to citizenship for undocumented people, including DACA recipients.
Harris hasn’t been as full-throated about possible pathways to citizenship for undocumented migrants broadly, but she has done so for “Dreamers” as well as farm workers.
In a town hall on Univision she called a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” one of her priorities.
Harris has also stressed her prior role as a prosecutor in tackling transnational drug cases and other crimes to suggest she would be tough on the border.
And she’s signaled she would keep penalties for illegal border crossings.
“I do not believe in decriminalizing border crossings, and I’ve not done that as vice president, and I will not do that as president,” she said during a contentious interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier.
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