With the election year of 2024 on the horizon, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have diametrically opposed positions on immigration and border security. Trump wants to return to his stringent policies of building a wall on the border, mass deportations, and putting in place tough measures to help deter illegal immigration. He masquerades immigration as a national security issue and tries to give primacy to border control.
Harris's approach encompasses balance in border security, humane immigration reform, and attention to the necessary reforms needed to treat immigrants as human beings. She supports legal pathways for the undocumented, addressing root causes of migration, and making asylum processes better. Harris also calls for protecting immigrants' rights while maintaining national security through comprehensive reform rather than an enforcement-only approach.
Trump's immigration rhetoric was based on strong enforcement, preventing illegal immigrations with aggressive tactics: family separations and "Remain in Mexico." These policies are widely criticized but core components of his platform for 2024. He looks at immigration as a threat to American jobs and safety, framing his approach as one of protection for the nation against dangers that stem from the outside.
Harris, however, sees immigration as far more complicated than border control. She says a way to decrease migration is to address poverty, violence, and corruption in the home countries. Legal paths for asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years are at the forefront of her plan, offering them a path to citizenship.
The jarring juxtaposition between the two candidates speaks to their deeper political philosophies. Trump's iron-fisted hand of enforcement speaks to those who consider national security and illegal immigration as major concerns, while Harris' policies speak to the people who put humanitarian solutions and comprehensive reform as the forefront of immigration policy. Both candidates' immigration stances will go a long way in dictating what 2024 looks like.
In the end, the immigration debate symbolizes the greater philosophical gap between Trump and Harris. While Trump's vision is set on going back to policies of security and enforcement, Harris works toward introducing a more humane and orderly system that can balance security concerns with immigrant rights and a long-term approach. These two visions run in contrast to each other and will form the pivot of the coming presidential contest.
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