This is the last BorderLine column before the election. I am often asked what would change on border and immigration policy under a Kamala Harris or a Donald Trump administration. To give you an idea, I looked at what the candidates and parties actually said.

The Republican Party platform of 2024, written after Trump was the party’s nominee and with his obvious input, stresses “the interests of American workers … over the claims of foreign nationals seeking the same jobs.”

In its one-page Chapter 2 (of 10), the platform says the priority should be to “secure our borders and all ports of entry and to enforce our immigration laws.” For those who break those laws, it continues, “we oppose any form of amnesty.”

Republicans believe the U.S. has been and remains “a haven of refuge” but want to limit asylum to “cases of political, ethnic, or religious persecution.” The platform warns that “refugees who cannot be carefully vetted cannot be admitted to the country.”

In a second term, Trump likely would pursue the same strategy as in his first term, albeit with improved tactics, given some hard lessons learned in the first term. He speaks often at rallies and interviews of the consequences to American families and communities of mass illegal migration, including higher crime and overwhelmed public services. Regaining control of our border—of who comes in and how—and resuming law enforcement and deportations are his stated priorities.

Trump is often criticized by Harris for opposing a supposedly bipartisan Senate border bill earlier this year. Most Republicans rejected the bill because it would have locked into law controversial Biden administration mass parole........

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