How Could Kamala Harris’ Stance on Immigration Impact the Economy if She’s Elected?
One of the biggest hot-button issues of the 2024 presidential race is immigration — specifically the record number of undocumented border crossings in recent years. Republicans favor tighter border controls and have roundly criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its handling of the issue. Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, back legislation to deal with the problem, but GOP lawmakers have resisted those efforts.
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If Harris succeeds in winning the White House this year against Republican nominee Donald Trump, her stance on immigration could have a big impact on the U.S. economy. A lot depends on how she handles the wave of undocumented immigrants into the country.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, migrant crossings into the United States from Mexico hit record highs at the end of last year, NewsNation reported. Nearly 250,000 crossed in December 2023 alone, which surpassed the previous monthly high of 224,000 in May 2022.
The sheer number of undocumented immigrants has strained the resources of border towns and become a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans and even certain Democrats. This past March, Harris announced that $5.2 billion in pledges from private companies had been made to “prop up Central American communities” in an effort to deter illegal entry to the U.S. under her guidance, according to NewsNation.
“The problems, of course, did not occur overnight, and the solutions will not be achieved overnight,” Harris said at the time.
As the Guardian noted, Harris as VP has been put in charge of addressing the root causes of migration from Central American countries. In February, she told Spectrum News that the U.S. immigration system is “broken and needs to be fixed.”
The Biden-Harris administration attempted a fix this past spring when it backed a bipartisan Senate bill on border enforcement. That bill would have added immigration detention beds, increased the number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel and asylum officers, and funded technology to detect fentanyl smuggling at the Southern border, NPR reported. It passed in the Senate but failed to move forward after Trump urged House Republicans to defeat it.
Because of that, Trump and the GOP have faced their own criticism for opposing legislation that might have strengthened the border.
How all this ties into the economy depends on who you ask. Lawmakers and policy experts who oppose the mass influx of undocumented immigrants point to the financial strain they put on government agencies, law enforcement departments, healthcare facilities, schools and other publicly funded entities.
But others counter that a better policy — and one Harris might support — is to make it easier for undocumented workers to apply for U.S. citizenship. The advantage, they say, is that these workers provide essential services by helping offset labor shortages in industries ranging from construction and agriculture to healthcare and hospitality.
A 2021 report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that more than 10 million undocumented immigrants live and work in communities across the U.S. On average, they have lived here for 16-plus years.
Putting undocumented immigrants on a “pathway to citizenship” would increase U.S. GDP by up to $1.7 trillion by 2031, according to the CAP report. It might also raise wages for all Americans and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
“Undocumented immigrants are critical to the nation’s social infrastructure–a fact that has become even more widely understood amid the coronavirus pandemic,” the report said. “Across the country, they are building families and starting businesses, they are keeping hospitals open and functioning, and they are caring for Americans’ loved ones.”
Should Harris win the 2024 presidential election, her biggest challenge will be balancing the need for better border controls with the need for more workers. Unless Democrats win both chambers of Congress — an unlikely scenario — then Harris would need the support of a few Republicans to pass immigration bills that could boost the economy.
Editor’s note on election coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on GOBankingRates.com.
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