Donald Trump Defeats Harris in Race for White House

Former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win the 2024 presidential election.

The Associated Press called the race for Trump early Wednesday morning after he won the battleground state of Wisconsin.

During his victory speech, Trump vowed to fix the border. “We are going to fix everything,” he said.

Immigration has been a focal point throughout the 2024 presidential election, especially amid the recent increase in migration to the United States.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have taken a hardline stance, promising some of the most restrictive immigration policies in decades.

Trump has pledged mass deportations, greater restrictions for asylum seekers, and limitations on access to citizenship and visas. Meanwhile, Harris has leaned on her career as a prosecutor and attorney general as she’s toughened her stance on initiatives to fortify the southern border.

Along the campaign trail, the candidates have criticized each other’s immigration policies. Trump has blamed Harris for the influx of migrants from Central and South America. 

Harris criticized Trump for tanking the bipartisan Senate immigration bill introduced earlier this year. The bill would have increased financial investments in CBP and ICE by billions of dollars while expanding accessibility for Green Cards and family-based visas.

The former president has doubled down on anti-immigrant rhetoric that was a centerpiece of his first term. During the campaign trail, one of Trump’s top policy priorities is to “seal the border.”

Trump has promised to reinstate Title 42, a policy that he previously utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic to turn away and deny asylum seekers from entering through the U.S.-Mexico border. He also plans to reinstitute the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as his ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico — oftentimes in dangerous conditions — during their immigration court proceedings.

For his second term, Trump vows to reinstate his Muslim travel ban, which barred immigrants from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States in 2017. President Biden later reversed the ban.

“Day one, I will seal the border,” the former president said at a Pennsylvania rally in October. “…and we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”

First-time immigrant voters and immigrant communities told Borderless Magazine about their worries going into the election. 

Sunjay Kumar, an Indian American from a mixed-status family, said neither candidate is making an effort to support asylum seekers and people who are undocumented — which is “really worrying.” However, he thinks a Harris presidency wouldn’t be as bad as a second term with Trump, which he called “terrifying in a lot of ways.”

Back of the Yard resident Maria del Refugio Zavala, an immigrant from Mexico, cast her vote for the first time in a U.S. presidential election.  

She said she worried about the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and hopes the next president will provide better protections from deportation for immigrant students and workers. 

Chinese American Mykell Miller told Borderless that he worries for his future safety as a transgender person if Trump gets re-elected. Miller referenced anti-transgender comments Trump and his allies have made, including a vow by Trump to ‘stop’ gender-affirming care for minors if re-elected.

“If there is a Trump presidency, chances are very high that I’ll have to take asylum in another country,” Miller said.