How Donald Trump, Kamala Harris differ on border security

(NewsNation) — Making the border safer and other immigration-related issues remain among the biggest concerns for voters heading into the 2024 election.

Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have prioritized border issues a focal point of their respective campaigns. Yet while Trump has used the border as a backdrop for a series of campaign stops in recent months, Harris has only made one visit to the border since 2021 despite her commitment to address immigration if she is elected.

Trump has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden and Harris, claiming that the president and his “border czar” are to blame for the steady amounts of migrants and for the trouble that Trump has alleged has come specifically from the illegal border crossings.

The president has countered with the effectiveness of his executive order, which led to a drop in the number of border encounters after a record 250,000 encounters were reported in December 2023 alone.

There has been a significant drop in encounters between federal agents assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border and immigrants who have entered the country illegally.

Like their approach to visiting the border, Trump and Harris have taken different views on how to solve America’s border issue. Ahead of the 2024 election, NewsNation is committed to covering the issues that matter most to voters so they can make the most informed choices possible at the polls.

Here is how the leading candidates’ policies compare on key voter issues, including those dealing with the border, the ongoing migrant crisis and the flow of immigrants into the U.S.

Border Wall

Trump

• After appropriating $15 billion in Defense Department funding to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, about 458 miles of the wall were either built or renovated during Trump’s White House tenure.
• Among his many immigration-related campaign pledges, Trump has vowed to complete the construction of the wall along the border. Various types of fencing that totaled 654 miles were already in place before Trump took office. The total length of the continental border is 1,954 miles.

Harris

• After initially declaring the wall a “medieval vanity project” in 2019 when she announced a run for president, Harris recently said she would seek to have hundreds of millions spent on the construction of the wall.
• Republicans have criticized her proposed plan for the border wall, claiming she has flip-flopped on a structure that she referred to as “un-American” in a social media post while Trump was in the White House.
• Harris has not laid out specifics for the wall, has not sat for a formal interview and has not conducted regular news conferences to provide details about her policies.

Deporting migrants from the U.S.

Trump

• If elected, Trump has promised mass deportations of migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally, although the Republican has not defined how many deportations could take place under his plan. In an interview with ABC News, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, said, “Let’s start with a million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. Then we can go from there.” Department of Homeland Security and Pew Research numbers have indicated that 11 million undocumented immigrants are living in the U.S.
• The New York Times recently reported that to help speed up mass deportations, Trump is preparing an expansion of a form that does not require due process hearings. The report indicated that to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, Trump has vowed to deputize local police officers to assist federal agents and National Guard units with the effort.

Harris

• While Republicans have repeatedly claimed that Harris served as President Joe Biden’s “border czar,” the vice president was never officially tasked with border-related policies, the Biden administration told the AP. Harris was reportedly charged with examining the root causes of migration from Central America.
• In her speech accepting the Democratic nominee for president on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris vowed to “reform our broken immigration system” and “create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.”
• Harris announced in March that $5.2 billion in pledges from private companies had been made to prop up Central American communities to deter illegal entry to the U.S. under her guidance. “The problems, of course, did not occur overnight, and the solutions will not be achieved overnight,” Harris said of the border at the time.
• As vice president, Harris backed Biden’s $20 billion border security plan that has twice failed to get through Congress and in recent campaign ads has vowed to “crack down” on fentanyl and human trafficking.
• Like Biden, Harris has vowed to keep pushing for a road to more legal protections for younger immigrants and create a path to citizenship for the millions who have lived in the U.S. without documentation.

Border Agent Staffing

Trump

• In 2017, Trump signed an executive order that required U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents to beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, by 2019, the agency had hired only 118 agents, with only three assigned to work along the U.S.-Mexico border, USA Today reported.
• However, if Trump is to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportation if elected, he has vowed to include local law enforcement agents who would be deputized to assist federal agents in the effort.
• To carry out his plan to terminate every open border policy that Biden has put into place since taking office 3 1/2 years ago, Trump has said he will direct “massive portions” of local law enforcement officers to be assigned to immigration enforcement, ABC News reported. That would include reassigning agents from federal agents like the FBI and moving troops currently based overseas back to the U.S. to assist in his commitment to securing the border.

Harris

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection currently has about 19,000 in its employment, which is down from about 23,000 in 2020, according to the New York Post. However, in campaign ads launched since she announced she would make a run at the White House, Harris has vowed to hire thousands of border agents if elected. The mission, the ad said, is to crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. “Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris,” the ad states.

‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy

Trump

• Trump launched the program formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which is more commonly referred to as “Remain In Mexico.” Under the proposal, more than 65,000 non-Mexican asylum-seekers were forced back across the border, Reuters reported.
• Many of those remained in Mexico for months — and, in some cases, years — while they awaited court dates for immigration hearings. Trump administration officials said that when the program was started, the initiative would deter fraudulent asylum claims. However, opponents of the program said that it made migrants more vulnerable, especially those with young children.
• This year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Biden can end the program. Biden suspended all new enrollments in the program when he took office in 2021, Reuters reported.

Harris

• Since replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, Harris has pledged that if elected, she would close private detention centers, limit deportations, and fight for a path to citizenship for non-documented American residents, The Washington Post reported. Harris has not specifically addressed Trump’s Remain In Mexico plan since the Supreme Court ruling in Biden’s favor.

DACA and Birthright Citizenship

Trump

• Trump said in 2023 that he would challenge the long-standing constitutional interpretation that offers birthright citizenship for children of authorized immigrants if he wins the 2024 election. Trump has vowed a Day 1 executive order that would authorize the federal government to deny citizenship to children whose parents are living in the country undocumented.
• In a campaign statement issued last year, Trump said that the executive order would “choke off” a major incentive for continued illegal immigration, deter more migrants from coming and encourage “many of the aliens Joe Biden has unlawfully let into our country to go back to their home countries. They must go back.”

Harris

• Harris, whose parents are from India and Jamaica, was once the target of Republican claims that she was not eligible to run for president despite being born in Oakland, California. Under the 14th Amendment, Harris, who is a naturalized citizen, indeed has the right to run for president “regardless of parental citizenship.”
• As a California senator, Harris was the first to call for then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation in connection with Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. The policy led to 3,000 children being separated from their parents. Harris also opposed Trump’s rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and pushed for Homeland Security to re-implement the program when the Supreme Court overturned DACA’s rescission, according to Immigration Impact.
• As vice president, Harris has backed Biden’s efforts to keep families together, saying in June in a White House statement that “immigrants have always made America stronger.” The statement said that the Biden-Harris administration “has worked to protect immigrants, keep families together, and expand lawful pathways to citizenship.”

Green Cards

Trump

• The former president said this year that he would automatically have green cards issued to foreign graduates of U.S. colleges and universities.
• In an appearance on the “All-In” podcast, Trump said that the policy would allow talent to remain in the U.S. and that anyone who graduates from an American institution of higher education should be able to remain in the country. “It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the greatest schools and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools,” he said.
• Trump added: “I think you should get, automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges, too.”

Harris

• Since Biden took office, Harris has touted plans to decrease wait times to obtain citizenship and grant automatic green cards to protect undocumented immigrants who are protected by the Temporary Protected Status and DACA, Harris said in a 2021 interview with Univision. “It’s a smarter and much more humane way of approaching immigration,” Harris said at the time, according to Politico.
• In the June statement issued by the White House, Harris said that she and Biden are working to expedite work visas for Dreamers who graduated from a U.S. college or university that has a job offer from an American company. “We value their contributions and want them to continue to unleash their skills, ideas, and potential right here in the country that has invested in their success to the benefit of our economy and our communities,” Harris said.

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