What is Kamala Harris’ policy on immigration?

Polls counsel voters belief Donald Trump greater than Kamala Harris on immigration. Harris is attempting to make up the distinction with a hawkish platform on the subject.

Harris has “referred to as for additional tightening of asylum restrictions,” mentioned The Related Press after the Democratic candidate visited the U.S. border with Mexico. Amongst her plans: “Extra critical legal prices” for migrants who repeatedly cross the border illegally, in addition to a brand new requirement that asylum claims be made solely at official U.S. ports of entry. “I reject the false selection that implies we should select both between securing our border and making a system that’s orderly, secure and humane,” she mentioned in the course of the border go to.

Most Democratic presidential candidates have normally framed immigration as a “matter of legalizing undocumented immigrants,” Jennifer Rubin mentioned at The Washington Submit. Harris, although, treats the matter as a “regulation enforcement situation on the border.” Border safety is the primary precedence — after that, Rubin mentioned, Democrats can flip to points “starting from momentary agricultural staff to dreamers to high-skill staff introduced in underneath H-1B visas.”

Hawk, or ‘fake border hawk?’ 

At her marketing campaign web site, Harris highlights her help for the bipartisan border safety invoice that Trump helped kill earlier this 12 months. The invoice would have offered new funding for 1,500 new border brokers, in addition to funding for “extra detection expertise to intercept fentanyl.” (The laws would even have “given the president better authority to close down the border when crossings are excessive” and closed some asylum loopholes, mentioned The Washington Submit.) Harris mentioned she would revive that invoice — a part of an method that features each “robust border safety and an earned pathway to citizenship” for migrants, her web site mentioned. 

Conservatives are skeptical. Harris is a “fake border hawk,” Wealthy Lowry mentioned at Nationwide Assessment. The Biden-Harris administration “tore up a border system that was working” and solely turned again towards enforcement after realizing the ensuing tide of migrants was a “political reward” for Trump. Harris cannot erase that she “spoke out forcefully in opposition to immigration enforcement only a few years in the past,” Lowry mentioned. As senator, she even sponsored payments to loosen enforcement. On immigration, “she desires to be one thing she’s not.”

‘Shift that mirrors the far proper’

There are additionally skeptics on the left. Harris “is not combating Trump on immigration coverage,” Anna Lekas Miller mentioned at The Progressive. “She’s echoing him.” Her emphasis on border enforcement “symbolizes a big shift that mirrors the far proper” and leaves migrants and their advocates with no “significant various.” The scuttled border invoice that Harris favors didn’t embrace any “significant path to citizenship” for undocumented migrants, Miller mentioned. Harris is “taking part in politics and shoving immigrants underneath the bus.” 

Harris’ tough-on-migration message on immigration displays a “altering nationwide temper,” Sahil Kapur mentioned at NBC Information. Harder border controls shall be a precedence “no matter which celebration wins the 2024 elections.” Which may be working for Democrats: A January ballot confirmed Trump with a 35-point lead over President Joe Biden on the problem. As of late September, that lead — now in opposition to Kamala Harris — had narrowed to 21 factors.