A cadre of speakers at the Democratic National Convention addressed immigration policy and border security Wednesday in an attempt to redefine what has been widely viewed as a major political vulnerability for Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris in this campaign cycle.
The speakers, who included Democratic lawmakers who have focused on immigration policy and the sheriff of a Texas county near the U.S.-Mexico border, embraced a bipartisan border security deal forged earlier this year that would enact significant restrictions on asylum and fund the hiring of thousands of additional Border Patrol agents and immigration officers.
The DNC speakers accused former President Donald Trump of playing political games on immigration by urging Republican lawmakers to reject the border policy compromise, which collapsed in Congress without sufficient GOP support. At the same time, the speakers painted Trump as anti-immigrant, highlighting his most controversial campaign pledges, which include a promise to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants as part of a massive deportation operation.
Those making the foray into immigration included Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democratic negotiator in the team that brokered the border security deal.
“Donald Trump’s allies weren’t just in the room, they helped us write the whole bill,” Murphy told the DNC crowd, calling it “a bipartisan bill.”
“One Republican said it would have had almost unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump,” Murphy added.
Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, Texas, called Trump “a self-serving man.”
“When he killed the border bill, he just made our jobs harder,” Salazar said.
Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, sought to paint Harris as being tough on border security while also touting her role in a Biden administration plan unveiled in June to provide a path to citizenship to about 500,000 migrants married to U.S. citizens.
“As a prosecutor, she took on transnational gangs and cartels,” Aguilar said. “As president will fight for pathways to citizenship.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, who blunted Republican attacks on immigration in a Long Island swing district by embracing centrist stances on the issue, told the crowd that “to be a nation of immigrants is hard sometimes too. You have to work for it.”
“The polarization on immigration is so painful,” Suozzi added. “The border is broken. But this year, when Democrats and Republicans work together to finally write new border laws, we were blocked.”
Social media influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina went as far as to quote the late President Ronald Reagan.
“‘As Ronald Reagan, a Republican, once said, ‘We lead the world because unique among nations we draw our people, our strength, from every country, every corner of the world.’ Reagan knew that welcoming immigrants is not a Democratic or a Republican value, it is an American value,” Espina said.
The speeches suggest Democrats are doubling down on their efforts to neutralize attacks on immigration, which Republicans and Trump, citing the record levels of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration, have sought to turn into a defining issue of the 2024 race. Trump on Thursday is planning to visit an area near the Arizona-Mexico border to offer counter-programming to the DNC.
Surveys over the past year have shown immigration is one of the worst-polling issues for the Biden-Harris administration. A CBS News poll released earlier this week found voters believe Trump is more likely to reduce migrant crossings at the southern border than Harris.
Trump and Republicans have faulted Harris for the unprecedented levels of border crossings recorded in the past years, branding her the Biden administration’s “border czar,” although Harris was not given that role. Instead, she was tasked with overseeing diplomatic efforts to address poverty, violence and other root factors of migration from Central America. They’ve also highlighted her more liberal immigration stances during her 2020 presidential bid, including her embrace of a move to decriminalize border crossings.
But Harris has tried to change that perception on the campaign trail. At rallies, she has promised to revive the bipartisan border security agreement if elected and to push for an “earned” path to U.S. citizenship for long-standing undocumented immigrants. In a recent ad, the Harris campaign touted her work going after international gangs as a prosecutor and her support for boosting the ranks of Border Patrol agents.
Unlike previous years, Harris and Democrats can also now point to border crossings decreasing sharply. In July, illegal crossings dropped for the fifth straight month, plummeting to the lowest level since September 2020. Officials have attributed the massive drop in migrant arrivals to a June executive action by Mr. Biden that has partially suspended asylum processing, the sweltering summer heat and Mexico’s efforts to slow U.S.-bound migration.
Harris’ attempts to portray herself as a champion of border security underscores a broader trend by most Democrats to coalesce around tougher messaging around border issues. The party platform adopted at the DNC this week, for example, embraced limits on asylum, a marked departure from its more progressive immigration stances in 2020.
The 2024 platform says Democrats support quickly deporting economic migrants and calls on Congress to “strengthen requirements” for asylum claims. Presidents, the platform says, should have the power to “stop processing” asylum claims when the “system is overwhelmed.”
The 2020 platform did not reference any restrictions on asylum. On the contrary, Democrats promised to “protect and expand the existing asylum system and other humanitarian protections” and “end Trump Administration policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers.”
The party platform at the time denounced Trump-era immigration policies as “callous, cruel, and reckless in the extreme.”
