(NewsNation) — Both candidates in the 2024 election have been talking about immigration, with Republican former President Donald Trump promising the country’s largest mass deportations in history and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris arguing to voters she is going to be tough on the border.
In battleground border states like Arizona, this is an especially hot topic.
Migrants arriving at Yuma in 2021 had to wait for so long for Border Patrol they began walking through the city looking for help. The regional medical center was sitting on more than $26 million in uncompensated migrant care.
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Last year, in Lukeville, Arizona, thousands of migrants from Africa came across the border through holes cut in the wall by cartel members. NewsNation crews were there when more than 800 men waiting along the border to be transported were processed.
The majority of fentanyl seized last year also came through Arizona.
Immigration has had a profound impact on the economy. About 50% of the labor market’s recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to The Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data.
What Trump, Harris have said about the border
Trump supporters have linked migrants to the rising cost of housing and said that the number of migrants coming into the country means they’re taking jobs from American citizens. Democrats have noted that experts don’t agree with Trump’s comments on housing prices and say the Republican nominee’s mass deportation plan would hurt employment opportunities for all Americans.
The Biden administration’s early struggles to address the record number of people who poured across the border over the last 3 1/2 years may have done more damage than they can recover from despite unlawful crossings between the ports of entry being down.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said at a rally in Scottsdale on Saturday that this election’s stakes “could not be higher.”
“Arizona knows that better than almost any state in the union,” Vance said. “There are over 453,000 illegal immigrants in this state because Kamala Harris refuses to do her job.”
During an Oct. 29 speech, Harris said politicians need to stop treating immigration “as an issue to scare up votes in an election and instead treat it as the serious challenge that it is, that we must finally come together to solve.”
“I will work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed,” Harris said.
Harris has leaned heavily on the failed Senate border bill as part of her campaign. However, opponents of the bill say it would have meant amnesty for millions and an open door for many more each year. The Border Patrol union pulled its support for the bill, and the National Sheriff’s Association also came out in opposition to it.
Arizona border ballot measure
Arizona residents will consider a new ballot measure that would give more power to local officials when it comes to enforcing immigration law.
Proposition 314 would make it a crime for noncitizens to enter Arizona from anywhere other than a port of entry, as well as allow for state judges to order deportations. In addition, state and local police would be given the power to arrest anyone who crosses the border without proper authorization.
Supporters of the bill say something has to change after the state became such a hotbed for human and drug smuggling. Opponents call it reminiscent of the controversial Senate Bill 1070, which made it a crime to be in the state without immigration papers. They say that bill basically allowed law enforcement to racially profile people if they speculated that they crossed the border illegally.
Senate Bill 1070, passed in 2010, was stripped down by the U.S. Supreme Court after it deemed aspects of the legislation unconstitutional in 2012.
NewsNation digital reporter Jeff Arnold contributed to this article.