AMERICA/USA - Presidential election: migration issue at the heart of the electoral campaign

Washington (Agenzia Fides) - "Sending away migrants, not giving them the opportunity to work, not welcoming migrants is a sin, it is grave," said Pope Francis at the press conference on the return flight to Rome on September 13, when asked what the moral criteria are for guiding the upcoming US presidential elections. After examining the positions of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the issue of abortion (see Fides, 21/10/2024), we now turn to the positions of the two candidates on the issue of immigration.
"I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry. Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years," said the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, at the end of September during her visit to Arizona on the US-Mexico border. "On my first day back in the White House, I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration, stop the invasion on our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump said during a rally in Iowa in December. Immigration policy is one of the central issues in the presidential campaign, and both White House candidates have stated emphatically that they will take strong measures to curb illegal immigration. Trump, in particular, has spoken on almost every campaign stage about the border issue and his plans to resolve it if re-elected. His proposals include reinstating measures from his previous administration, such as banning citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States and extending it to refugees from the Gaza Strip. The "largest internal deportation effort in U.S. history" promised by Trump would require moving military units to the U.S.-Mexico border, authorizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on workplaces, denying due process to unauthorized migrants, building additional immigration prisons along the southern border, and repealing the Flores Accord that provides protection for migrant children. Trump also wants to eliminate birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented parents, deport and revoke the visas of pro-Palestinian foreign students who demonstrate against Israel, revoke humanitarian residency permits, and impose "ideological screening." So far, Trump has announced only one proposal to increase immigration: automatic green cards for non-citizen graduates of U.S. colleges and universities.
Kamala Harris accuses Trump of sabotaging the migration policies put in place by the Democratic administration and says that if elected, she will take a position that balances the needs of national security with the humanitarian needs of those seeking asylum in the United States. "We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators, and if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum," the Democratic candidate said, but added that she "rejects the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane. We can and we must do both." Accusing Trump of opposing an agreement between Democrats and Republicans to tighten border controls, Harris said: "The US immigration system needs to be repaired, and we are working on that in a way that we establish a safe and humane and orderly immigration system at the border." In any case, both candidates promise a tough fight against unregulated immigration. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 26/10/2024)

Share:

migrants

---

---

elections

---

---