Immigration has been a heated issue in the 2024 presidential election, a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats. Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have significantly different stances.
Harris has repeatedly said that she believes the current immigration system is broken and that reforms should be implemented. At the Democratic National Convention in August, Harris stated that she wanted to create an earned pathway to citizenship and speed up the naturalization process for those with children already living in the United States. She also wants to secure the border, crack down on drug trafficking, and sign a bipartisan bill that would strengthen asylum standards and control agents. (The bill in question was negotiated by three senators – one Democrat, one Republican and one independent – but did not pass after former president Trump mobilized his allies in Congress to oppose it.)
Harris plans to take action that would benefit the country overall by creating a safer border and less crime. The bill she wants to sign would be a reasonable compromise between political parties, providing peace when tensions have reached an all-time high. She cares about the lives of Americans because children of immigrants don’t deserve to grow up without parents, and Harris’ solution would ensure that this doesn’t happen. Her plan is logical and would help millions of people.
Trump, on the other hand, plans to enact a mass deportation that would ruin the lives of millions of families. He has promised to fulfill the largest deportation in U.S. history, where millions of immigrants could lose protection. He says that he wants to use the National Guard to round up migrants and invoke a 1798 law, the Alien Enemies Act, that would permit the president to deport any non-citizen from a country that is at war with the U.S. He wants to limit birthright citizenship, particularly for children of illegal immigrants.
Trump wants families to be separated, for children to grow up with parents they can never see, for millions of immigrants to lose their security. He wants to sign laws into place that come from an era where people owned slaves and went to watch public hangings. He doesn’t just want to deport a massive amount of immigrants. He also intends to prevent children who are born in the United States from becoming citizens, going against the Constitution. He’s prevented agreements from being achieved amongst Democrats and Republicans, as shown through his destruction of the bipartisan bill. Trump doesn’t want peace. He wants to divide the country and bring it further to the brink of civil war. Trump’s policies contradict what it means to be an American and would destroy countless lives.
It is crucial that people vote for Harris because Trump plans to make America a country of ignorance and danger.
