If you watched September’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, you probably remember the shocking moment the Republican nominee accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating the pets of good old innocent Americans. The comment was so absurd—and factually incorrect—that it went viral as a now tragically hilarious TikTok sound (“They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs”) for Gen Zers and millennials to dance to.
And while we all love some comic relief, Trump’s untrue accusation was quite sincere at its core, and very much exemplifies his stance on immigration. The former president has long made it his “Make America Great Again” mission to keep immigrants out of the United States. In his first term, he famously insisted that he would build a wall along the southern border “and have Mexico pay for it.” No such thing occurred, but Trump is hoping that if he is reelected, he can continue that passion project.
Now that he’s up against Harris in the presidential race, the Republican has attacked the Democrat’s allegedly lenient border policies. While Harris agrees that illegal immigration needs to be stopped, she and the Democrats hope to continue to focus on strengthening asylum laws for people wanting to cross the border in hopes of finding a better life in the United States.
Immigration is a top issue on this year’s ballot, and both candidates have been trying hard to win over Arizona, the border state with a high population of Latino voters that could swing the election.
Below, we break down where each candidate stands on the issue.
Kamala Harris
Democrats have a more humane approach to securing the border than the Republicans, yet Harris has noted that this in no way means she supports letting in criminals, as Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have suggested. The vice president has reminded the GOP that for years, her job as the California attorney general was to keep criminals off the streets, and to enforce the law, but that viewing all immigrants as criminals is a Republican issue.
“As California’s Attorney General, I know what a crime looks like. Let me tell you that an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in 2017.
She has accused Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” by villainizing immigrants.
Rather than kick out the Dreamers and separate families at the border, Harris—the first Black or South Asian woman ever nominated for U.S. president—wants to find a solution for migrants.
Under the Joe Biden administration in which Harris serves as VP, illegal border crossings decreased greatly thanks to the president’s asylum ban. Still, Harris supports comprehensive immigration reform and wants to strengthen protections for immigrants and asylum seekers. Harris is also set on creating better paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and improving processes to help Dreamers obtain their citizenship. (A Dreamer is an immigrant who was brought into the country illegally as child, but has since grown up into adulthood in the country and identifies as an American.)
“I reject 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,” Harris said earlier this year. “We can and we must do both.”
In summary, Kamala Harris:
- Believes in protecting immigrant communities.
- Wants to reform our asylum system.
- Wants to help migrants and Dreamers obtain legal resident or citizenship status.
- Does not believe in kicking out Dreamers.
- Does not support illegal border crossings.
- Does not believe in separating families at the border.
- Does not believe immigrants are criminals.
- Does not believe in letting criminals roam free, regardless of citizenship or race.
Donald Trump
While Trump—who has continually questioned and mocked opponent Harris’s race throughout his 2024 campaign—insists he is not racist, the Republican nominee’s plans for a better America include supporting the wealthy upper class and kicking out the migrants.
During his presidency, Trump launched a brutal “zero-tolerance” policy that resulted in more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents at the southern border. The move was widely criticized as inhumane, so much so that the administration eventually had put an end to it.
Now, in outlining his priorities for 2025, Trump and his party have ranked immigration as one of their top two concerns—the other being to “defeat inflation.”
“Republicans offer an aggressive plan to stop the open-border policies that have opened the floodgates to a tidal wave of illegal aliens, deadly drugs, and migrant crime,” the party states on its platform. “We will end the invasion at the southern border, restore law and order, protect American sovereignty, and deliver a safe and prosperous future for all Americans.”
In summary, Donald Trump:
- Still wants to build the wall.
- Wants to expel migrants who have crossed the border unlawfully. (He and running mate Vance have been unclear about whether this includes unaccompanied children.)
- Wants to stop processing asylum claims except for migrants who follow the legal processes at specific ports of entry. (This can take months, or years.)
- Has pushed for a reduction in the legal immigration pathways mentioned above.
- Wants to “reverse the Democrats’ open borders policies.”
- Passed a “zero-tolerance” policy that separated thousands of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Wants to kick out the Dreamers.
