Trump vs. Harris: What they would mean for NJ immigrants
Donald Trump has said that if he returns to the White House, his administration will push for the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants. Kamala Harris has called for stronger border security but has encouraged undocumented immigrants to pursue a pathway to citizenship.
Immigrant advocates and politicians in New Jersey are watching closely. The Garden State may be a long way from America's southern border, but New Jersey, in various ways, is an immigrant state.
According to the U.S. census, immigrants make up almost 24% of the state's population, the second-largest share in the country behind California. The American Immigration Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group, says the largest immigrant groups in New Jersey trace their roots to India (12.4%), followed by the Dominican Republic (9.8%), Mexico (5.2%), Ecuador (4.8%) and Colombia (4.4%). The council also found that 1.2 million immigrants were eligible to vote.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, a Democrat who saw the state's capital become one of the transit stops for buses bringing migrants from Texas and Louisiana earlier this year, said a Trump administration "may prioritize stricter border enforcement and immigration controls, yet leave cities on their own to deal with the influx of migrants." He said Harris will focus on "humane policies, increasing border patrols and immigration judges while protecting the rights of immigrants, and offering pathways to citizenship."
Germán Cadenas, an associate professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick who studies the psychology of immigration, was an undocumented immigrant at age 15 who migrated with his family in 2002 from Venezuela. Cadenas said whoever becomes the next president needs to craft immigration policies that take into consideration the psychological well-being of those affected. He also serves on an American Psychological Association task force that looks at immigration and health.
"There's quite a bit of science that shows that anti-immigration policies are harmful to people's well-being," Cadenas said. "I found that undocumented immigrant status is linked to greater anxiety, greater distress, greater depression."
Where Harris stands on immigration: Backing the border bill
During Kamala Harris' time as vice president, the Biden administration implemented immigration measures that were both hailed and reviled. On Monday, the administration launched the Parole-in-Place program (also known as Keep Families Together), which will allow undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency if they meet certain criteria, with an eventual path to citizenship. Last year, the administration tightened restrictions on asylum seekers, allowing the government to reject them unless they make an appointment for an hearing.
Harris, while campaigning, has mentioned some of the immigration policies she would pursue if she became president, although she has not officially unveiled her policy agenda. She has promised to push for the passage of a bipartisan bill in Congress that would shut down the processing of asylum applications if numbers rise above certain levels and to increase funding for border agents to catch migrant traffickers and fentanyl smugglers. The bill nearly passed Congress last spring, but Trump convinced fellow Republicans to block it.
At rallies this month in Nevada and Arizona, Harris has called for an "earned pathway to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants, though she has not given more details.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 8.4 million migrant encounters at the southwest border during the Biden administration through June — a record for any presidential administration — and that has fueled Republican criticisms of an "open-border" policy. The numbers have declined sharply this year, a change that analysts credit to a crackdown in Mexico, under pressure from the U.S., and President Joe Biden's recent restrictions on asylum.
Trump promises 'mass deportations' of immigrants
Trump, during his time in office, was adamantly anti-immigration. The former president pushed to get a wall built along the southern border, though it was never completed. He imposed a temporary ban on new green cards during the COVID pandemic and sought to end the Temporary Protected Status program for immigrants from countries that suffered war or major natural disasters. He also attempted to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for "Dreamers" brought to the U.S. as children, but was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Trump's 2024 immigration platform, based on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and his own campaign's Agenda 47, includes his signing an executive order on the first day of his presidency to end automatic citizenship for children of those described as "illegal aliens" and restarting the construction of the border wall. He also would again move to repeal Temporary Protected Status designations.
Trump has promised to deploy the U.S. military to shut down crossings at the southern border. He hasn't provided details of how he plans to pull off the "mass deportations" of immigrants already living in the U.S.
The former president has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, though the blueprint was written by political allies and former Trump administration employees.
More: Border politics heat up in White House race: Where does Harris stand on immigration?
NJ advocates wary of Harris, down on Trump
Charlene Walker is the executive director of Faith in Action in New Jersey, a multiracial network of faith leaders and communities that works with immigrants across the state. Walker said the immigrants involved with the network are "hopeful for a Harris presidency" because they see her being more receptive to their issues, despite some of the Biden administration's more restrictive actions on asylum. When Trump was president, they lived in fear, she said.Although Biden did extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants, he also drew criticism in 2021 for deporting thousands of Haitians who came to the southern border fleeing civil and humanitarian unrest in the Caribbean nation.
"The Biden administration hasn't been the best for immigrants. It can go much further in transforming our immigration system, and the mass deportations of Haitian immigrants during a time of great crisis in their country is one of the worse things they could have done," Walker said.
Walker said the faith leaders in her network want the next president to make the following commitments:
A pathway to citizenship for everyone undocumented in the United States.
Honoring the right to asylum without detention.
Ending immigration detention.
A Harris endorsement but no 'love letter'
Kat Phan, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, also called for major reforms.
"Regardless of who ultimately occupies the White House, it’s more apparent than ever that our immigration system requires a dramatic overhaul, not tweaks to the status quo or a return to the incredibly regressive 'security-first' rhetoric that results in failed immigration reform and countless deaths and human rights violations at our borders," she said in a statement. "Instead of using New Jersey’s immigrant communities as political pawns, the people we elect to office should be focusing on restoring asylum and creating additional pathways to citizenship."
Sara Cullinane, director of Make the Road New Jersey, another immigrant advocacy group, said members of an affiliated nonprofit, Make the Road Action, have endorsed Harris. Cullinane said that move was not a "love letter," but rather a reflection of which candidate they feel they can push to implement policies beneficial to immigrants.
“What we did," she said, "is really pick a person that if she became president that we would want to push. Our members were very clear that they didn’t want to go back to the horrors of the Trump administration. They want to look forward to an administration where there’s an opportunity to advance the pro-immigrant policies we need for our families.”
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
X/Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ immigrants talk Harris, Trump amid talk of deportations
