Opinion | I hope Harris deviates from her predecessors’ immigration policies

Anyone who watched the presidential debate could see that Trump’s main talking point is immigration. The former president managed to respond to what felt like every question by talking about “illegal aliens” and mass deportations. Harris could have derailed this strategy with one simple fact — the Biden-Harris administration has removed more immigrants than Trump ever did.

Not only does Biden’s record beat Trump’s, but it also supersedes former “deporter-in-chief” Barack Obama’s numbers, which were also higher than Trump’s. Many people don’t give Biden his due credit because media reports of family separations and appalling conditions at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers were far more frequent during Trump’s presidency, making him seem more hostile toward immigration. That’s because he was, in terms of who he deported and how he treated them.

The Biden and Obama administrations mostly turned away immigrants upon arrival and sent ICE officials to arrest illegal immigrants who had committed crimes. Trump deported people who had been living in the country with their families for years and likely never broke the law.

Even worse, Trump deported parents with the false promise that if they dropped their requests for asylum, they could see their kids again. As if all of that is not enough to make the divide between Obama and Biden’s tough policies and Trump’s clear, neither of the past two Democratic presidents were accused of allowing forced sterilizations at the border or mentioned giving immigrants “serial numbers” so ICE can quickly and easily remove them from the country. 

To no surprise, Kamala Harris tenaciously opposed Trump’s treatment of immigrants while he was president. The real question is where her policy plan will fall in comparison to Biden and Obama. Hopefully, not right out of a coconut tree. 

This daughter of immigrants has the opportunity to realize policy that exists in the context of all in which we live and what came before us, rather than increasingly right-leaning solutions that result in more people in detention centers and more children in foster care. Vice President Harris must reframe the way Americans view and respond to immigration by emphasizing humanitarian solutions and acknowledging the historical role the U.S. government played in creating the unstable political environments we see in Latin American countries many immigrants are seeking refuge from.

So far, we know that Harris continues to support Biden’s bipartisan border security bill. Part of the bill was created to help address the current backlog of three million immigration cases by providing funding and training for more immigration judges. This is a step in the right direction because as these cases are processed, many immigrants are detained, which both adds to the overwhelm at the border and is inhumane.

Harris’ stance on these detention centers that currently house over 37,000 people was, in 2019, a commitment to closing them. The past prosecutor knows that detainment is used as a punishment for criminals, a description the majority of immigrants do not match. I expect that with the right’s harsh criticisms of her approach to border security, Harris is not going to stand by that commitment. I find this unfortunate as the immigration system’s dependence on detention centers likely contributes to MAGA rhetoric repeatedly equating immigrants to criminals. 

With respect to the long-term residents that Trump deported, whom Biden and Obama did not protect, Harris is passionate about providing them an “earned pathway to citizenship.” This reform is backed by human rights groups and would allow immigrants that have been living in the U.S. peacefully for a long period to attain citizenship. 

Moving in the opposite direction, Harris vowed to continue Biden’s temporary asylum ban. This policy has indefinitely decreased the number of border crossings by putting vulnerable populations at further risk for violence. I hope her commitment to this policy is a short-term placeholder for more humane solutions that uphold asylum seeker’s rights. 

One such solution is international policy to benefit the home countries of people seeking refuge in the U.S. Thankfully, Harris has already taken action as VP to invest in Central America and the Caribbean. Her efforts have already decreased the amount of migrants at the border from these countries, and I am optimistic that they will continue during her presidency. 

As with any politician, there are policies Harris supports that deviate from my hopes for the future, and those that she promotes that do not already have congressional support, such as earned pathway or the bipartisan border security bill, may not come to fruition. But if anything, her candidacy represents potential for progress. Hopes for these policies represent a great step forward.

Angela Davis put it best when she said “It’s not just about electing Kamala Harris,” it’s about opening space for “those of us who are more radical than Kamala Harris.” We, as Americans, have an opportunity to move forward toward greater humanitarianism and become a country that does not fear immigrants but welcomes them.

Julianna Steach is interested in topics regarding human rights, feminism, mental health and queer culture. Email her at jhs106@pitt.edu.