Where the Candidates Stand: Immigration

Donald Trump

The Trump Administration believes strict action at the border will restore the rule of law and secure our border. He is committed to constructing a border wall and ensuring the swift removal of unlawful entrants. Trump supports ending chain migration, eliminating the Visa Lottery, and moving the country to a merit-based entry system. During a surge of migration in the summer of 2019, the Trump administration implemented a policy that separated thousands of children from their parents. The parents were deported while the children stayed behind in the U.S., some in detention centers, some located with relatives in the U.S. and some placed by DHS with other agencies and in foster care. Hundreds of these children have yet to be reunited with their parents.

Trump has signed several executive orders affecting immigrants and refugees in the US and globally. His EO on border security contains several sections which undermine human rights, including the expanded use of detention, limits on access to asylum, enhanced enforcement along the US-Mexico border, and the construction of a 2000 mile border wall. Another EO expanded the priority list of noncitizens subject to deportation to include even minor offenses and his new policy on asylum effectively denies asylum to virtually all migrants arriving at the southern border that are not from Mexico. 

Joe Biden

Biden wants to immediately reverse the Trump Administration’s policies that separate parents from their children at the border and to End Trump’s detrimental asylum policies. He wants to end mismanagement of the asylum system, which fuels violence and chaos at the border.

Biden wants to surge humanitarian resources to the border and foster public-private initiatives.  He wants to end prolonged detention and reinvest in a case management system. He wants to reverse Trump’s public charge rule, which runs counter to our values as Americans. He wants to end the so-called National Emergency that siphons federal dollars from the Department of Defense to build a wall. Biden wants to protect Dreamers and their families and to rescind the un-American travel and refugee bans, also referred to as “Muslim bans.”

Biden wants to ensure that ICE and CBP personnel abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment. He wants to restore and defend the naturalization process for green cardholders.