UNITED STATES, — It's more than 1,500 miles from Pennsylvania, but the situation at the U.S. Southern Border with Mexico continues to loom large in the Commonwealth, along with that of immigrants and migrants looking to settle into the country.
Viewers of FOX43 have selected this issue as one of their most important in this year’s election as part of FOX43’s Pennsylvania’s Choice series.
Former President Donald Trump is still in favor of a border wall but has also expressed support for large deportations.
He says he plans to enact a series of executive orders if elected, stripping the citizenship rights from the children of undocumented immigrants, implementing a travel ban and "unleash interior immigration enforcement."
Trump had come out in opposition of a bipartisan bill early in 2024, negotiated largely by Sen. James Langford (R-OK) and Sen. Kyrstin Sinema (I-AZ)
The bill would have allowed the Department of Homeland Security to close the border if Border Patrol encountered 4,000 or more migrants per day on average over seven days. DHS would have had to shut down the border if encounters reached an average of 5,000 over seven days.
The bill would have also streamlined the asylum process and end the practice of “catch and release” at the border.
Vice President Kamala Harris says she would sign the bill into law as president, and has accused Trump of killing the bill for his own political gain.
The United States Customs and Border Protection reported nearly 250,000 encounters with both asylum seekers and those looking to cross illegally in December of last year, marking an all-time record for a month.
Encounters have decreased significantly, however, since President Biden signed an executive order in June curtailing migrant crossings. Encounters have fallen nearly 80% since the order was signed.