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Immigration at the 2024 Democratic National Convention

by Gabe Ortiz on

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The 2024 Democratic National Convention featured a hopeful and optimistic view of what America can be, on immigration and beyond, that stands in stark contrast to the “send them back now” chants and “mass deportation now” signs at July’s Republican National Convention. While there was no ignoring the embrace of enforcement-only, asylum-restricting bipartisan legislation that Trump killed, speakers including Vice President Kamala Harris invoked their own immigrant roots and our shared history as a nation of immigrants. Below are selections from all four nights of the convening. 

Monday, August 19:

California Rep. Robert Garcia: “I am a proud immigrant who came to the United States as a young child. We grew up poor, English was our second language and we often, like many immigrant families, struggled to get by. But my mom, she moved here to the United States because she believed in the American Dream.”

“I’ll never forget the day that I became a United States citizen. I raised my right hand and I pledged an oath to protect and to love this country. It was the proudest day of my life.”

“My mom taught me to love this country. She taught me that real American patriotism is not about screaming and yelling ‘America First.’ Real American patriotism is loving your country so much that you want to help the people in your country. That is American patriotism.”

United Auto Workers’ Shawn Fain: “It’s the oldest trick in the book. They want to blame the frustrations of working class people. They want to take those frustrations – they want to blame it on race, they want to blame it on LGBTQ+ people, they want to blame it on some destitute, desperate person at the border. They do that because they want working class people to be divided and to focus – and keep the focus off the one true enemy: corporate greed.” Fain followed up in an Axios interview saying that we when he sees migrants at the border “when I see those people, I see my grandparents.” 

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “If you are a working parent trying to afford rent and childcare, Kamala is for you. If you are a senior who has to go back to work because your retirement didn’t stretch far enough, Kamala is for you. If you are an immigrant family just starting your American story, Kamala is for you.”

President Joe Biden: “Trump continues to lie about the border. Here’s what he won’t tell you. Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border deal in the history of the United States that we negotiated with the Senate Republican took four weeks. Once it passed, and then we acknowledged those expansive border change in American history, he called senators to say, “Don’t support the bipartisan bill” because he said it would help me politically and hurt him politically. My God. No, I’m serious. Think about it. Not a joke. Ask even the press who doesn’t like me, they’ll tell you that’s true. Typically Trump, once again, putting himself first and America last. “

“Then I had to take executive action. The result of the executive action I took: border encounters have dropped over 50%. In fact, there are fewer border crossings today than when Donald Trump left office. And unlike Trump, we will not demonize immigrants, saying they’re the poison of the blood of America, poison the blood of our country. Kamala and I are committed to strengthening legal immigration, including protecting Dreamers and more.”

Tuesday, August 20:

Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar (at Axios event): “There are innumerable people who are caught up in a law that is so byzantine, that it just doesn’t even make sense. In America, we have eight million unfilled jobs today. We are a nation with an aging population, a nation where families are not having babies at the same rate that they were when my parents had a family, when their parents had a family. We need immigrants, and there are people who are fleeing their homeland, looking for a shot at being new Americans, adding to our GDP, growing businesses … immigration policy is economic policy.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom: “I come from a state, like our nation, of Dreamers and doers, of entrepreneurs, of innovators, that prides itself on leading and cutting edge of new ideas. California is the most diverse state in the world’s most diverse democracy. And we pride ourselves on our ability to live together, to advance together, and prosper together across every conceivable and imaginable difference. But the thing we pride ourselves most on, is that we believe the future happens in California first.” 

President Barack Obama: Trump “killed a bipartisan immigration deal written in part by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress that would’ve helped secure our southern border, because he thought trying to actually solve the problem would hurt his campaign.”

“We can secure our borders without tearing kids away from their parents.”

Wednesday, August 21:

House candidate Lateefah Simon: “When [Harris] goes into that Oval Office … I guarantee you she will take all of us with her. All of us. The single mothers, the disabled veterans, the low-income folks who are dying to survive, the immigrants who are trying to work towards the promise of America, she will take us all, the farmworkers, she will take us all with her. All of us.”

New York Rep. Tom Suozzi: “The immigrant experience – E pluribus unum, out of many, one. My family’s experience, Kamala Harris’ experience, the American experience. That’s why the polarization on immigration is so painful. Let’s be clear: the border is broken. But this year, when Democrats and Republicans worked together to finally write new border laws, we were blocked. We all know who sabotaged us. We reject the divisiveness. We reject the dysfunction. We reject the deception.”

California Rep. Pete Aguilar: Trump “talks about tearing American families apart. Pitting neighbor against neighbor, community against community. Compare that to what Kamala Harris has done as vice president. Almost half a million people who live here and are married to a U.S. citizen can now apply for lawful permanent residence. DACA recipients who graduated college have easier access to work visas, and we would have much more security at the border if Donald Trump hadn’t tanked the bipartisan bill. Folks, we don’t have to choose between a secure border and building an America for all. But President Harris, we can and will do both. As a prosecutor, she took on transnational gangs and cartels. As president, she will fight for pathways to citizenship.”

“We believe that our nation is stronger when we keep families together. We believe our union is more perfect when Dreamers become doctors, teachers, construction workers, and military service members.”

 

Dreamer segment: 

“Thanks to DACA, I’ve been able to open up my own business and represent clients as a lawyer.”

“It is disheartening to know that the court system may end DACA next year, and to also hear Donald Trump calling for mass deportations.”

“It is time that we recognize Dreamers for who they are. We are contributors to this great nation.”

Harris is “who stood with us, who sat with us, who heard our stories.”

“My name is Areli, and I am proudly a Californian. I’m from Puebla, Mexico, where I came from when I was a little girl to reunite with my mom, my dad and my little brother. A difficult decision, because I had to leave my other family behind: my grandma, my grandpa, my tíos, my tias. But I came chasing my dream, which was to be a doctor. Sadly, I wasn’t able to achieve that dream because I was undocumented. I grew up undocumented here and that dream did not come true.”

“I was able to go to college though, and after college I continued to work as a janitor because I couldn’t get employment while undocumented – until DACA happened in 2012, when President Obama announced DACA. I was able to apply for the program. I was able to get a work permit and also a driver’s license. So many of my dreams came a little bit closer. Sadly, this all changed when Donald Trump announced the end of the program. But we had a champion who stood alongside us, and that was our senator, Kamala Harris. She was the one who stood with us, who sat with us, who heard our stories, who was always involved and always advocated for DACA beneficiaries and their families. That is why I am so proud to say that we continue the fight, we continue to remember that DACA beneficiaries are still here, and we are still fighting to remain in this country, because this is my home. My home is here.”

 

Influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina: “Daily I interact daily with people, who like my parents, who came to America to fulfill the dreams and ambitions that in their home countries were impossible. People who work hard, contribute to society, pay taxes — because, yes, immigrants pay taxes — and love this country deeply. The same people Donald Trump wants you to believe are poisoning the blood of our country. This is dangerous and it is outright anti-American, because as Ronald Reagan once said – Ronald Reagan, a Republican – once said, we lead the world because unique among nations we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world. Reagan knew that welcoming immigrants is not a Democratic value or a Republican value, it is an American value. To be pro-immigrant is to be pro-America.”

Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar: “When it comes to the border, hear me when I say: you know nothing, Donald Trump. He and his Republican imitators see the border and immigration as a political opportunity to exploit, instead of an issue to address. Congress hasn’t passed comprehensive immigration reform in nearly four decades. The three times they tried, Republicans blocked legislation that would have funded border security, and created a more human immigration system. They are not serious people.”

“You know who is serious? Kamala Harris. I met the vice president when she visited El Paso. I saw firsthand how she engaged with law enforcement, migrants, and human rights advocates. She was curious. She asked questions. She listened, and she didn’t care if the cameras were on. Most of all, she recognized that the situation at the border is complicated. As filled with opportunities as it is with challenges. All Republicans have to offer is demonization and bluster. Democrats have solutions. With Kamala Harris as president, we can live up to the promise of America. We can strengthen legal pathways to immigration, we can secure our borders and we can treat with dignity those who seek a better future within them.”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy: “Donald Trump’s allies weren’t just in the room, they helped us rate the whole bill. It was a bipartisan bill. It was a tough bill. $20 billion in new border security, gave the president the emergency power to shut down the border, made compassionate but serious reforms to our asylum system. One Republican said, it would’ve had almost unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump. Trump killed that bill, and he did it because he knew that if we fixed the border, he’d lose his ability to divide us. His ability to fan the flames of fear about people who come from different places.”

“Trump says that a safe nation can’t be an immigrant nation. That’s flat wrong – and Kamala Harris knows it. She knows this too. Engraved on the Statue of Liberty is a poem. That last line reads, ‘I lift my lamp beside the golden door.’ For generations, that lamp has called people to start a brave, new life in America. My ancestors, your ancestors, and the parents of the next president of the United States of America. Kamala Harris knows we can be a nation of proud immigrants and a nation of strong immigration laws. That’s why when she’s president, she will bring that border bill, and Kamala Harris is gonna pass it.”

Oprah Winfrey: “And soon, and very soon (applause)….Soon, and very soon, we are going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic energetic immigrants, immigrants, how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States! That is the best of America!” 

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore: “Making America great means saying the ambitions of this country would be incomplete without your help. It’s the legacy of those six workers who fixed potholes on a bridge while we slept. Who were born in a different country, but who knew America was big enough for them too.” 

Thursday, August 22:

Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost: “I’ve heard the stories of immigrant farmworkers, made to work in horrid conditions, exasperated by this crisis.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla: “It’s the American Dream, after all, that brought my parents to the United States decades ago.”

Attorney Maya Harris: “In 1958, a 19-year-old from India left the only country she’d ever known to chart her own path in America. She came here to pursue an education, but she stayed here to build a life. Her name was Dr. Shyamala Gopalan-Harris. But we called her mommy. Mommy was so many things to so many people, a civil rights activist, a scientist, a devoted mother to her two little girls, but most of all, mommy was a trailblazer who defied the odds and defined herself. And when it came to Kamala and me, mommy had great expectations for us, but she had even greater expectations of us. She raised us to believe that we could be and do anything, and we believed her.”

“You see, mommy understood the power and the possibility that come with knowing and showing who you truly are. She knew we could be the authors of our own stories, just as she’d been the author of her own. Mommy’s journey and the opportunity that she wanted for Kamala and me, that’s a distinctly American story.  We may all have different histories, different struggles, or different perspectives, but what binds us together is the fervent desire to be free, to fulfill our God-given potential.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris: “America, the path that led me here in recent weeks, was no doubt … unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. My mother Shyamala Harris had one of her own. I miss her every day. Especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight. And smiling. My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California, with an unshakeable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer. When she finished school, she was supposed to return home to a traditional arranged marriage. But, as fate would have it, she met my father, Donald Harris, a student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got married, and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me.”