If you watched the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in September, the Republican candidate accused Haitian immigrants of eating the pets of good old innocent Americans in Springfield, Ohio. Do you remember that shocking moment? This comment was so ridiculous and factually incorrect that it turned into a tragically hilarious TikTok sound for Gen Z and Millennials to dance to (“They’re eating the cat. They’re eating the dog.”) spread rapidly as
And while we all love comic relief, Trump’s false accusations are very sincere in nature and speak well of his stance on immigration. The former president has long made it his mission to “Make America Great Again” to keep immigrants out of the United States. During his first term, he famously argued that he would build a wall along the southern border and “make Mexico pay for it.” That didn’t happen, but Trump hopes he can continue his passion project if reelected.
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The Republican, who is currently running against Harris in the presidential election, is attacking the Democratic Party’s supposedly permissive border policies. While Harris agrees that illegal immigration needs to be stopped, Democrats want to continue to focus on strengthening asylum laws for people trying to cross the border in search of a better life in the United States. .
Immigration is a top issue on this year’s ballot, with both candidates trying hard to win support in Arizona, a border state with a large Latino voter population that could swing the election.
Below, we will analyze where each candidate stands on this issue.
kamala harris
Democrats have taken a more humane approach to border security than Republicans, but Ms. Harris is not as likely as Mr. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, have suggested. , he pointed out that this does not in any way mean that he supports the entry of criminals into the country. The vice president told Republicans that his longtime job as California attorney general was to keep criminals off the streets and enforce the law, but that it was a Republican problem to label all immigrants as criminals. I was careful.
“As California’s Attorney General, I know what crime looks like. Let me tell you this: illegal immigrants are not criminals,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in 2017. .
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She accused President Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” by demonizing immigrants.
Rather than expelling Dreamers and separated families at the border, Harris, the first black or South Asian woman nominated for U.S. president, wants to find solutions for immigrants.
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Under President Joe Biden, of whom Harris is vice president, illegal border crossings have declined significantly, thanks to the president’s asylum ban. Still, Harris supports comprehensive immigration reform and wants to strengthen protections for immigrants and asylum seekers. Harris is also working to create a better path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and improve the process for Dreamers to become citizens. (Dreamers are immigrants who entered the country illegally as children but have since grown up in the country and identify as American.)
“I reject the false choice that we must choose between securing our borders and creating a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” Harris said earlier this year. “We can and must do both.”
In summary, Kamala Harris says:
I believe in protecting immigrant communities. I want to reform the asylum system. We want to help immigrants and Dreamers obtain legal residency or citizenship status. I don’t believe in kicking out Dreamers. I do not support illegal border crossings. I don’t believe in separating families at the border. I don’t believe that immigrants are illegal immigrants. We do not believe in allowing criminals to roam free, regardless of citizenship or race.
donald trump
During the 2024 campaign, Trump has continued to question and ridicule his opponent Harris’ racism, but while insisting he is not a racist, he is a Republican candidate who aims for a better America. The plan includes supporting the wealthy upper class and expelling immigrants.
During his presidency, President Trump instituted a brutal “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents at the southern border. The move was widely criticized as inhumane, and the government ultimately canceled it.
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Trump and his party currently list immigration as one of their two biggest concerns, the other being “beating inflation” as they outline their 2025 priorities.
“Republicans are proposing an aggressive plan to stop the open border policies that have opened the floodgates to a wave of illegal aliens, deadly drugs, and immigrant crime,” the party’s platform states. “We will stop aggression at our southern border, restore law and order, protect American sovereignty, and deliver a secure and prosperous future for all Americans.”
To summarize, Donald Trump said:
I still want to build a wall. He wants to expel immigrants who cross the border illegally. (He and his running mate, Vance, are unclear on whether this includes unaccompanied children.) He wants to halt the processing of asylum claims, except for immigrants who follow legal process at certain ports of entry. That’s what I think. (This may take months or even years.) We are pushing for reductions in the legal immigration channels listed above. “I want to reverse the Democratic Party’s open borders policy.” border between America and Mexico. I want to get rid of the Dreamers.
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