Immigration, border security among top issues that will decide presidential race

It can be tough to determine exactly where the presidential candidates stand on the issues after being barraged by headlines, rallies, campaign events and political ads.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are making personal appeals, having visited the Pittsburgh region more than any place in the country in a quest for success at the ballot box.

Millions of dollars in ads are bombarding Western Pennsylvanians during streaming shows, the evening news and Steelers games. Ads are virtually impossible to miss on social media and popular online sites.

TribLive is presenting a series of stories to help cut through the noise and provide an in-depth look at where Harris and Trump stand on the biggest topics of the 2024 election, starting with border security and immigration.

The border

According to a poll commissioned in September by Spotlight PA, immigration ranked as the third-most important issue to Pennsylvania voters, behind the economy and the future of democracy.

The issue has been substantially litigated by the campaigns, including unfounded allegations related to the influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield, Ohio.

The campaigns have focused on issues surrounding U.S. policy regarding the border and illegal immigration. Trump has maintained the number of illegal border crossings has surged under the Biden-Harris administration, calling the Democrats’ policy lax and arguing that it has allowed criminals to infiltrate the country. Harris contends efforts to solve the border issue were sabotaged by Congress and specifically Trump, who urged Republicans to scuttle a bipartisan deal that would have strengthened immigration enforcement and limited illegal crossings.

Statistics show border crossings dramatically increased during the Biden-Harris administration. Government tracking indicates there have been more than 10 million encounters between agents and migrants seeking both legal and illegal entry into the United States along the southern border with Mexico. There were an estimated 2.4 million encounters during the Trump administration from 2017 through 2020.

Statistics compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection reveal the number of migrants who attempted to enter through the southern border peaked last December with nearly 250,000 encounters reported. That number plummeted to just more than 58,000 in August.

In June, the Biden administration enacted a series of executive policy changes to limit the number of migrants who can legally enter the country after Congress failed to approve a bipartisan immigration bill that officials said included provisions to increase border enforcement and limited legal migration based on the volume of cases. Both Democrats and Republicans who negotiated the deal said Trump lobbied to scuttle its passing before the November election.

Unfounded reports were promoted by Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, who claimed local pets, dogs and cats were being captured and eaten by Haitian immigrants. Local, state and law enforcement officials denied the story even as the Republican candidates continued to push that narrative. City officials said the false claims spurred violence and threats that led to evacuations of local schools and hospitals.

In Pennsylvania, Trump singled out Haitian immigration as a problem for local residents in Charleroi, the small Washington County borough that sits across the Monongahela River from Monessen in southern Westmoreland County.

Local officials have disputed Trump’s claim that immigration into Charleroi has increased crime, negatively impacted the borough’s budget and put a strain on the local school district.

Harris touts record

Harris has continually touted her record on immigration.

Her campaign website said she is seeking “smart solutions to secure the border, keep communities safe and reform our broken immigration system.”

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She touted her experience as California attorney general, a role in which she says she prosecuted international drug gangs, human traffickers and cartels that smuggled guns, drugs and people across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Harris has pledged to renew a push to pass the scuttled border deal in Congress and sign it into law. She said the proposal would add 1,500 border security agents and deploy more detection technology to intercept fentanyl and other drugs before they enter the country.

“It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States,” Harris said during a September debate with Trump. “I know there are so many families watching tonight who have been personally affected by the surge of fentanyl in our country. That bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings.”

In 2021, President Joe Biden assigned Harris to find the root causes of immigration into the United States from Central America and explore ways to strengthen those countries’ borders.

Customs and Border Protection statistics show immigration levels from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have gone down in the years since Harris’ assignment began, while migrants from countries such as Colombia, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, which were not part of the vice president’s assignment, have gone up.

Trump seeks wall

The former president has continued to call for renewal of his program to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. During his first presidential campaign, Trump pledged he would require the Mexican government to pay for construction of the wall. That pledge remains unfulfilled.

Construction of about 450 miles along the 2,000-mile border has been completed, funded by U.S. taxpayers. Trump has said he will resume wall construction.

Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, the Associated Press reported.

The other centerpiece of his immigration policy is the proposed implementation of mass deportations of illegal immigrants. He has not offered specifics for his deportation plan.

In June, Trump estimated there were as many as 18 million undocumented illegal immigrants in the country. The most recent government estimate showed that just under 11 million unauthorized immigrants resided in the United States as of Jan. 1, 2022, up 500,000 from two years earlier but down from the 2010 total of 11.6 million.

“If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military,” Trump said this summer in an interview with Newsweek. “We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country. And whichever gets us there, but I think the National Guard will do the job.”