Migrants, mainly from Venezuela, seek asylum before Title 42 ends at Mexico-US border (May 13, 2023).
[The below represents solely the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the institution.]
About this series: The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University ran an intensive three-week graduate summer course on migration and refugee studies in Greece in July 2024, in collaboration with the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies and the Refugee and Migration Studies Hub of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. For the final assignment, participating students were invited to write a short op-ed on a migration-related theme. We picked five among the submissions to be published as part of a student opinions series. We hope our FXB community of readers enjoys these thoughtful opinion pieces. Learn more about the FXB distress migration program here.
Kamala Harris Must Rethink the Way She Approaches Immigration Policy
by David Friedman
With less than a month until the nation takes to the polls, Kamala Harris faces razor-thin margins and significant pressure to woo undecided and uncommitted voters. In order to build a compelling campaign that wins new votes, it’s time for the Harris team and the Democratic Party at large to re-think its approach to a variety of policy matters – including immigration.
It’s no secret that immigration policy is top of mind for Americans this election year. Pew Research finds that roughly six-in-ten (57%) Americans view immigration as a top policy priority. Despite immigration policy’s importance, though, voters have not been satisfied with the Democratic Party’s current approach. Nearly 80% of Americans across the political spectrum say that the U.S. government is doing a bad job of managing immigration.
During his term, President Biden has been able to push forward a number of promising immigration reforms – such as expansions of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and deportation protections for spouses of U.S. citizens. These meaningful policy improvements, though, have largely been overshadowed by what many describe to be an ongoing “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Critics have lambasted Biden and the Democratic Party for failing to address smuggling and irregular border crossings. Disappointingly, Biden has responded to these criticisms by leaning into the crisis narrative and pursuing hard-line immigration policies in line with his predecessor’s. This has included enacting a slew of deterrence-based measures, such as grossly expedited deportation proceedings and a ban on the internationally-recognized right to asylum, which have made it exceptionally difficult for immigrants to enter and remain in the U.S. lawfully.
Whether enacted under Biden, Trump, or Harris, these deterrence-based policies sow the same fate – they are both inhumane and ineffective. Experts have seen that restrictive immigration policies and the stripping of legal entry pathways do not improve border security; in fact, they increase the likelihood of migrants resorting to smuggling and illegal networks. These measures not only fail to alleviate irregular border crossings, but also pose immense danger to migrants’ lives and grave abuses of their rights.
Here’s the reality we face: immigration – even with its changing profile, and ebbs & flows – has always been a constant in American society. The more that our leaders sensationalize immigration to be a crisis, the harder it is for our nation to actually put forward real solutions that work for both immigrants and host communities. It’s clear that our past leaders’ co-opting of crisis narratives and hardline policies don’t make border communities, immigrants, or our nation any better off, and the Harris team needs to take note.
The launch of Harris’s presidential campaign initially brought a surge of new energy to the Democratic Party and American electorate, especially among women, youth, and voters of color. For many, there was a belief that Harris would do things differently – that she would run a campaign and presidency on more than the failed party platforms of the past. Today, this seems to be far from the case on immigration policy. Harris’s recent talking points in campaign visits to border states and campaign advertisements alike have highlighted hawkish border policies that would restrict the right to asylum, fund the militarization of our southern border, and accelerate immigration detention.
Now is the time for Harris to change gears before she finds herself too deeply embedded into the failed approach to immigration of Presidents past. To prove that she is a President who will be focused on real solutions, Harris must reject the immigration crisis narrative and its overemphasis on deterrence and militarization and instead focus on building diverse legal pathways through labor, family reunification, humanitarianism, and other bases. More visa opportunities for unskilled workers, increased refugee resettlement slots, and expedited work permits for asylum seekers are a few of the realistic yet meaningful reforms a revamped Harris immigration platform should pursue. Moves like these will improve on-the-ground outcomes, putting the Democratic Party on a path towards sound immigration policy that doesn’t co-opt harmful narratives and helping Harris court a wider swath of voters.
Immigration isn’t a crisis, but our approach to it does need urgent change. The excitement around Harris’s candidacy is a prime opportunity to introduce a new framing to immigration policy – one that rightfully sees immigration as a complex web of humanitarian, labor, familial, and historical phenomena that is deserving of complementary legal pathways.
About the author: David Friedman is a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Master in Public Policy (MPP) program. He has previously worked with asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors on their immigration cases, and he has served on the implementation team for Massachusetts’s Work and Family Mobility Act. He was a member of the 2024 summer course on migration and refugee studies cohort.
Featured photos: David Peinado Romero / Shutterstock