Biden asked Harris to tackle the 'root causes' of migration. Here's what happened after that.
NBCJul 21
US Election Issue: Immigration
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The Facts
OVERVIEW: The US currently hosts the largest foreign-born population in the world, driven by economic, religious, and humanitarian factors. Per US Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) data, the average legal immigration from 2000-2021 was just over 1M people per year. Though 2016-2020 saw the longest continuous decrease since 1940-1944, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reports the largest ever two-year increase (5.1M) in the foreign-born population (both legal and unauthorized migrants) from 2022-2024, reaching a record-high total of 51.6M.
CURRENT STATE: Immigration has long been a source of political contention, with current debates centered around economic, security, and humanitarian concerns, as well as unauthorized immigration. DHS data shows 8.5M unauthorized migrants in 2000, 11.6M in 2010, 10.5M in 2020, and 11M in 2022. This excludes 5M children born in the US and thus given citizenship. The Congressional Budget Office projects that unauthorized immigrants will add $1.2T in federal revenue and reduce the deficit by $0.9T over the next decade, though CIS reports a "lifetime net fiscal drain of $68,390" per unauthorized migrant.
The Spin
Republican narrative
Harris has demonstrated her approach to immigration as vice president to Biden over the last four years. First, the administration proposed giving citizenship to all 11M unauthorized migrants. Then, when that was shot down in Congress, the Democratic-led Senate offered a laughable compromise of providing citizenship to "only" 6M of this population — the whole time keeping the border wide open for millions more to come in. Trump's "America First" perspective is a sound and secure approach.
Democratic narrative
As vice president, Harris has created forward-looking policies rather than unrealistic one-size-fits-all solutions. She's worked with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to fix the underlying issues causing migrants to flee their home countries. As millions of victimized people seek a better life in America, it's up to the next president to create a system that welcomes those in need while blocking wrongdoers. Harris will do that, while Trump will simply criminalize all immigrants based on xenophobia.
Cynical narrative
Though both parties use immigration as a political prop to rouse their respective constituencies, unauthorized migration serves the interests of the US economic elite, as undocumented workers provide cheap labor in several crucial industries. Big business, which spends millions to influence US politics, consistently uses undocumented labor, as the migrants face all of the risks while companies reap the economic reward. The gridlock surrounding much-needed immigration reform only serves the interests of those who profit from undocumented labor — on both sides of the aisle.
