By Maria Ortiz
Sep 19, 2024, 00:08 AM EDT
The Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the immigration proposals of Donald Trump and warned of “mass raids, massive detention camps” and mass deportations at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute conference on Wednesday.
Harris told an audience of Hispanic leaders in Washington that Republican candidate Donald Trump’s immigration agenda was a danger to the country.
“We all remember what they did to separate families,” Harris said at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus event, part of an effort to build support among Latino voters. “And now they have committed to carrying out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in the history of the United States.”
The vice president asked attendees to delve deeper into Trump’s proposals, which include plans to arrest undocumented people on a large scale and detain them in camps awaiting deportation.
“Imagine what that would be like and what it would be like,” Harris said“How is that going to happen? Mass raids? Mass detention camps? What are you talking about?”
Harris combined the attack on Trump’s agenda with promises to prioritize border security and provide an “earned path to citizenship.”
Harris has sought a balance in her proposals on border security and immigration, as polls have shown that some Latino voters trust Trump more on those issues.
Trump has not offered details about his immigration proposal, despite being asked about it during the presidential debate on September 10, but has reiterated that he will carry out large-scale deportations.
Harris said the United States should focus on reforming “our broken immigration system.”
“We can do both,” said the vice president“Create a pathway for citizenship and ensure our border is secure.”
The exact number of undocumented immigrants in the United States is unknown, nor the methods by which Trump would increase existing deportation rates.
A Pew Research Center study estimated that there were 11 million illegal immigrants in 2022, of whom about 4 million were from Mexico and 2 million from El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala.
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