Last updated on September 26, 2025
Especially during an election year, immigration is one of the most pressing and polarizing issues shaping public discourse. As Trump and Harris clash over policies that will define the nation’s future, immigration emerges not only as a question of who enters our country but also of how it affects economic stability, social cohesion, and basic human rights.
Interestingly enough, both Republicans, who have traditionally been firm on immigration, and Democrats have built their campaigns on tougher border policy. Indeed, Kamala Harris has flipped the script, continually asserting herself as a resilient attorney general from a border state who persecuted transnational gangs, drug cartels, and human traffickers. Harris has been especially vocal about reviving a border security bill that would give the President the authority to, “shut down the border” when necessary and “put 1,500 more border agents on the border”—a bill Harris blames Trump for tanking in the name of preserving his competitive edge.
Similarly, Trump continues to support his wall and proposed the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of the U.S. through the National Guard and “local police.” But this competition over who is tougher on immigration isn’t exactly new. We’ve seen this same dance for decades.
Since the 90s, the U.S. has continually employed immigration deterrence policies. From constructing border walls, deploying additional agents and invasive surveillance technologies, or swiftly deporting individuals without due process, every administration in some way or another has fed into this strategy of “prevention through deterrence,” but never a deeper, root-causal approach.
Migrants aren’t something to be deterred; they’re real people fleeing violence, and looking for a better future. Their home countries rank in the top 10 for violence, as they experience unprecedented levels for areas outside a war zone; citizens are murdered daily in communities overrun by gangs, corruption, and cartels.
Restricting immigration only compounds this desperation, driving migrants to cross into more remote and hazardous areas in attempts to remain undetected or even pushing them into the clutches of violent smuggling rings. Thus, despite decades of harsh border policy, unauthorized border crossings and migrant deaths continue to rise year after year, while the unaddressed root causes of the crisis roar on. No wonder up to 80,000 people have died at our border.
But what has been the response? A refusal to accept that tough border policies have failed Americans and immigrants alike. No matter how many times we’ve tried, how many billions we’ve spent, the pendulum always swings back. We have to acknowledge that. We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. We must break the cycle.
It is time for a new approach. One grounded in human rights. One grounded in respect. One grounded in tackling the root causes, not the symptoms. It’s no easy task; it’s hard to know how exactly it should play out. However, it all begins with a simple acknowledgment that harsh border policy simply does not work.
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