Washington, DC — Tomorrow, Vice President Kamala Harris will head to Arizona and deliver remarks at the border. We expect VP Harris to highlight that the volume of border encounters have plummeted in recent months and to continue her strategy of calling out Donald Trump and Republicans’ preference for immigration politics over solutions, encapsulated by Trump’s cynical obstruction of the bipartisan, enforcement-heavy Senate bill.
Yet VP Harris has an opportunity to more fully connect with the broad majority of Americans’ immigration and border views and meet the political moment by not only focusing on her vision of an orderly border but also by highlighting her support for Dreamers, legal immigration, and citizenship for long-settled immigrants; and by offering sharp contrasts with Trump, including and especially the scope and consequences of his mass deportation scheme and his reliance on unyielding vile anti-immigrant lies that seek to divide Americans.
VP Harris already is modeling the broader approach that includes, but does not stop at, her commitment to a border policy approach to addressing the issue, including last week during a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) and during multiple interviews (see here). For example, in an interview that aired yesterday with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, the Vice President coupled her criticism of Trump’s cynical obstruction (saying, “he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem”) and her support for an orderly border with an endorsement of a broader policy vision, noting, “we need a comprehensive plan that includes what we need to fortify not only our border but deal with the fact that we need to create pathways for people to earn citizenship.”
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Tomorrow in Arizona and throughout the remainder of this campaign, VP Kamala Harris has the opportunity to lay out a broader vision on immigration that connects with the majority of Americans who recoil from Donald Trump’s extremist ideas and reliance on lies and want a balanced approach to immigration – supporting both an orderly border AND legal immigration and citizenship for Dreamers and long-settled immigrants.
The Trump/Vance vile strategy to keep the focus on race and immigration is designed to distract attention away from their role in ending Roe, imperiling Americans’ healthcare protections and the other extreme Republican policy positions. But on immigration, it’s a moment to fight back against the ugly and transparent attempts to divide us. America is better than this and VP Harris can and should stand up for and chart a different vision for this nation.”
Background and Context
- America’s Voice has consistently suggested that by continuing to lean in and define herself in favor of her balanced, broader vision, VP Harris is aligning herself with where American voters actually are – most Americans, including Latino voters and a majority of battleground state voters – support a balanced approach that pairs an orderly border alongside a pathway to citizenship for immigrant families, instead of the chaos, cruelty, and costs of the mass deportation-only alternative.
- There’s a reason Trump and Vance are refusing to answer key details about the sweeping scope and consequences of their proposed mass deportation vision – the details are politically toxic and economically catastrophic. Trump’s goal is to make as many immigrants as possible deportable, no matter their current legal status, including not just recent arrivals, but Haitians with TPS, Dreamers with DACA, spouses of U.S. citizens eligible for the Keeping Families Together process and are even embracing the chilling concept of “denaturalization” and “remigration.” The impact of these turbocharged deportations would go well beyond immigrant communities and would rip apart American families, communities, and the U.S. economy.
- Meanwhile, the Trump and Vance campaign seems little more than an ugly attempt to scare white Americans through race-baiting lies and stoking anti-immigrant fears despite the dangerous climate they are sparking, the local pushback led by Republican elected officials and the reality that immigrants are helping to revitalize the Rust Belt and strengthen our economy. Politicians like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro are pushing back on the Trump camp’s lies aggressively (see this new Greg Sargent Daily Blast podcast from The New Republic with Gov. Shapiro). As columnist William Galston recounts in the Wall Street Journal, several Republican leaders in Ohio have stepped up to counter the libel and disinformation.
- And increasingly, independent observers are calling out the economic consequences of the mass deportation plan (new Peterson Institute analysis here) and contextualizing the contribution of immigrants to the economy (see this new reminder from Michael Ettlinger about how immigrants are strengthening the employment and wage outlook of American workers here).
Additional Reads and Resources
- Read the new Medium analysis from Michael Ettlinger, “Of Course Immigrants Bring More Jobs and Higher Pay for Americans”
- America’s Voice analysis, “Trump’s Team Real Scheme Revealed: A Pledge to Deport Immigrants with LEGAL Status”
- Read Boston Globe and Medium op-ed from Michael Ettlinger, “Trump’s plan to vaporize the economy”
- “Literature Review on the Economic Consequences of the Deportation of Unauthorized Immigrants,” by Robert G. Lynch (Washington College – Department of Economics) and Michael Ettlinger (University of New Hampshire)
