( Spanish) – Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States and Democratic presidential candidate, and former president Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, are about to face each other in the November elections in the United States to define who will occupy the White House for the next four years. Immigration is one of the issues that both candidates have focused on in recent weeks, especially Harris, who has used the issue to mark a clearer distance from Trump.
Harris needs it, since Trump still leads on the immigration issue in the polls. According to a poll conducted by SSRS and published at the end of September, 49% of likely voters trust the former president to handle immigration, while 35% trust Harris to do so.
In this context, the vice president made a decisive move. On September 27, Harris traveled to the border with Mexico—the first time she has done so as a presidential candidate—to outline her immigration plans, something she described as a problem that has languished for decades.
During her trip to the southern border, in Arizona, Harris emphasized some of the points with which she said she will seek to strengthen border security if she wins the November elections.
“I will take further measures to keep the border between ports of entry closed,” he said.
Harris said that, if he wins the elections, his government would prohibit entry to the United States for five years for those caught trying to enter irregularly.
Likewise, he assured that those who do not request asylum at the ports of entry will no longer be able to do so.
“While we understand that many people are desperate to immigrate to the United States, our system must be orderly and secure, and that is my goal,” he added.
On Thursday, October 10, the Democratic presidential candidate presented her plans for immigration reform, in an attempt to attract Latino voters before the elections.
Harris referred to the dreamersundocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and said one of his priorities is creating a path for them to obtain citizenship.
“One of the biggest problems with the lack of a comprehensive plan for immigration is that we have not given them [a los dreamers] the path to earning your right to citizenship. And that is, again, one of the priorities for me, frankly, in terms of my motivation for what I know we need to do,” he said.
Harris added: “They should not have to live in fear, but rather have the ability to be on a path to obtaining their citizenship.
In July, Harris’ campaign released a 50-second video contrasting Trump’s immigration policies with the Democratic candidate’s immigration policies.
“Kamala Harris supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. “Donald Trump blocked a bill to increase the number of Border Patrol agents,” says the voice in the background of the video, which also cites Harris’ support for investing in new technology to block fentanyl from entering the United States. .
The video came on the heels of two Trump campaign ads that take direct aim at Harris’ immigration stance.
Not everything has been proposed by Harris. The Democratic candidate has also taken advantage of the issue of immigration to criticize Trump.
On her trip to the southern border in September, Harris lashed out at Trump for his role in May of this year in the collapse of a border security bill that was the product of months of bipartisan negotiations.
“It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades. He was endorsed by the Border Patrol union. And it should be in effect today, producing results in real time, right now, for our country,” he said at a rally in Douglas, a city on the US-Mexico border.
“But Donald Trump sunk it. “He picked up the phone and called some friends in Congress and said, ‘Stop the bill,’” he said. “He prefers to campaign on a problem rather than solve it. And the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games and his personal political future.”
Trump responded to those statements by increasing his own rhetoric on immigration. Highlighting violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, the former president told a crowd in Walker, Michigan, that Harris “delivered these horrors.”
“He unleashed these atrocities, and the blood is on his hands at a level that probably no one has seen in this country,” he said.
Trump also falsely accused Democrats again of letting people into the country illegally because “they want the votes.” People without U.S. citizenship cannot vote in U.S. elections, a reality ignored by Trump, who for years has lied about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
How are Trump and Harris different on immigration?
–With reporting from ‘s Eric Bradner, Ebony Davis, Marlon Sorto, Tami Luhby, Way Mullery and Priscilla Alvarez.
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