As Trump Demonizes Immigrants, Democrats Adopt Some of His Border Policies

Interview with Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Since he first entered presidential politics in 2015, Donald Trump has demonized immigrants. In the current 2024 election, he’s placed immigrant-bashing at the center of his campaign to regain the White House, with support from his Vice Presidential running mate, JD Vance. In recent months, Trump has compared immigrants of color with animals, and charged that migrants have “bad genes.”

Trump believes his targeting of America’s immigrant population to generate hate and fear is an effective tool to energize his base, even more than concern about the economy. The twice impeached former president has pledged that if elected, he’ll deport some 11 million undocumented U.S. residents, many of whom are undocumented not by choice, but because the nation’s immigration laws haven’t been reformed since 1986.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center. Here she talks about the similarities and differences between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on the issue of immigration.

KICA MATOS: It’s been really disappointing to see the Democratic party lurching to the right on this issue. And just to provide some context, I’ve been doing immigration advocacy now for 22 years and this is the first time that both the Democratic and Republican parties have embraced anti-immigrant policies. It’s both alarming and foolish.

There is a saying that this country was in part built by immigrants, and that is exactly true. If you look at it from a purely economic perspective, our economy largely thrives because of immigrant labor. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes every year, even though they don’t benefit from programs that they pay into, including Medicare and Social Security. Immigrants pay taxes, state, local and federal taxes, so they’re economic contributors. Immigrants pick our fruits and vegetables and they work in the kitchens in restaurants and they’re the ones who are largely in hotels, making our beds. Then we have immigrants who make significant economic contributions in Silicon Valley and the like.

And immigrants are not just to be measured by their economic contributions. They contribute to the culture of our nation. They are our neighbors. They are our friends. They worship with us. Irrespective of their status – whether they’re documented or undocumented – they’re very much a part of our democracy and our country, and we would benefit mostly from embracing and continuing an approach that welcomes immigrants as opposed to demonizing them.

The last thing I would say is that if we go down the road that Trump has paved and now the Democrats are following, we’re going to see some terrible consequences – social, political, economic and otherwise. It gives us pause and we should really carefully look at the policies that both parties are advancing and ask if that’s in the best interest of most Americans, and the answer would be absolutely not.

MELINDA TUHUS: Well, when you talk about the ramifications, this article I was reading was about the dairy industry and how it’s basically run by immigrants, and the majority undocumented immigrants. It would probably collapse, because it’s such hard work.

KICA MATOS: Nobody wants to do it, yes! And here’s the other thing: a lot of the arguments we hear Trump and the Republican party making are just not true. They’re based on lies and demonization and criminalization of immigrants and they’re not actually factual. And that’s another problem that we have facing us.

These rampant lies – what are the most offensive ones? They’re eating our pets, stealing our jobs and raping women and bringing drugs from Mexico and across the border. And the truth is that just about every economic analysis you look at shows that immigrants are not stealing the jobs of Americans because they’re largely doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do anymore, because they’re so hard.

MELINDA TUHUS: The border policy seems moving in a similar direction, which Trump is taking credit for. But it does seem like there’s a difference – he says he’s going to deport every undocumented person, even if you’ve been here 20, 30 years, he’s going to go after you. They have a database and they’re going to try to do mass deportations. They’re going to do workplace raids and so on. Do you know what the Democrats think of that? Are they going that far down that road?

KICA MATOS: Democrats are not going that far down that road, and quite frankly, even though both parties have embraced anti-immigrant principles, I would say it’s a false equivalency to compare the immigrant platform of the Republicans and the Democrats. I will say that Kamala Harris, as a senator, was very supportive of DACA recipients. She supported some pro-immigration bills. She spoke out and denounced some of the policies that Trump advanced when he was president, including the policy of separating children.

She has celebrated America’s immigrant heritage and has called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who call this country home. So, there is some nuance and there are some policies that Democrats are still supporting, including pathways to legalization and support for Dreamers, that Republicans denounce.

Trump wants to use the military to carry out deportations – something that we will challenge because it is unconstitutional. He wants to end birthright citizenship, something else that is deeply embedded in our constitution.

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