The complicated, multi-faceted challenge of immigration policy

When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 with a diatribe against Mexican rapists, he struck a nerve within the American electorate.

A decade later, immigration remains a potent issue and Trump has shifted away somewhat from “build the wall” to “secure the border” and, more ominously, “mass deportations” of the undocumented.

The immigration issue has had several phases under President Biden. It began with Title 42 — the COVID-era regulation — that allowed the immediate deportation of millions. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers were ultimately released into the country, stressing resources but also alleviating labor shortages and boosting economic activity.

This is a central conundrum of the immigration debate. Goldman Sachs has projected that the U.S. economy would do better under Harris in part because Trump’s immigration policies would slow the economy.

Early on Vice President Harris was given the thankless task of trying to address the root causes of the immigration flows (no, she was not the “border czar”) but Biden administration attempts to make the process more orderly were overwhelmed when Title 42 ended.

Ultimately, the President embraced the work of three Senators led by conservative Republican James Lankford. The trio had painfully negotiated a tough border security bill. “I believe the Biden administration came to the table,” said Lankford, “because it saw this was spiraling out of control.”

Lankford had the votes to pass it, but Trump signaled he wanted the bill killed. He did not want Biden to have a political “win” and he wanted to run on the immigration issue in the election.

In response, Biden has used an executive order to partially shut down the southern border and that has reduced, though not halted, the number of attempted entries, which have fallen by nearly 50 percent.

Vice President Harris has embraced the Lankford bill and pledged as president to sign it if it can find its way to her desk.

In her recent CNN interview she has stressed her background as a prosecutor from a border state, has asserted that our laws must be enforced, and has criticized Trump for killing the Lankford bill.

Passing a comprehensive immigration bill has been one of the hardest tasks in Washington. There has not been one since the Reagan administration and major efforts failed in 2007 and 2014 and, now, in 2024.

As for Trump’s pledge to secure the border and carry out mass deportations (JD Vance said we’ll start with a million and go from there) there are no real details.

Though immigration was his most important issue, Trump’s remedies never had support in Congress during his first term. Deals to trade border wall money for a permanent status for the “Dreamers” — individuals brought to America as children — were inevitably killed by hard-liners within his own administration.

The idea of mass deportations would provoke bloody court battles, and opposition in the Congress and in the business community. Half all agricultural workers in America are undocumented. Think grocery prices are high now?

Trump has linked the surge of migrants to crime. However, those pesky statistics show immigrants commit fewer crimes and start more businesses than the native born.

Many Americans say they are not against immigration; they just want it to be done legally. Do they understand how incredibly hard our laws make it to obtain legal status — temporary or permanent? The wait can last decades. Our businesses crave talented foreign workers.

If tough talk solved problems, immigration would have been fixed long ago. Trump’s policies during his presidency were characterized by racism, cruelty, chaos and ineffectiveness. Only Congressional action can address this problem, and only Harris has pledged to pursue that most challenging course.

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• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His new book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.