WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump's pledge to massly deport illegal immigrants and mocked how he plans to achieve that goal.
“They've promised to carry out the largest deportation in American history, mass deportations. Imagine what that would look like, what it would entail,” the Democratic candidate told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
“How does that happen? Massive raids, mass detention camps?” Harris asked in disbelief. “What are they saying?”
Trump has repeatedly promised to launch the largest deportation operation in the country's history after record numbers of people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under Biden.
Polls show the idea has majority support among voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
According to a Scripps News/Ipsos poll released Wednesday. 54% of Americans Forty-three percent of people “strongly” or “somewhat” support mass deportations of illegal immigrants, while 43% are opposed.
A CBS News/YouGov poll released in June found that 53% of registered Hispanic voters support deporting all illegal immigrants, and 50% support building federal detention facilities to hold them before deportation.
“Kamala Harris doesn't know reality,” said Caroline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.
“The American people want the law enforced, but Kamala wants an open border that will cause crime and higher housing prices at the expense of hardworking taxpayers.”
Biden appointed Harris to lead the effort to reduce illegal immigration in March 2021, but illegal border crossings hit record highs every year during Harris' first three years in office.
The vice president said Wednesday that if he defeats President Trump, he would again push for a “path to citizenship” for people in the U.S. illegally.
Under the Harris and Biden administrations, many immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally were given documents allowing them to stay legally while their asylum cases were stuck in court.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration can revoke these discretionary “parole” grants.
The Biden administration has expelled some migrants whose asylum claims are deemed invalid, including sending planeloads of families back to Latin America.
The US government has a variety of ways to deport people, including booking charter flights or escorting them to the gate of an outbound commercial flight.
The exact number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is unclear, as is how President Trump plans to increase existing deportation rates.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, by 2022 11 million illegal immigrants Of these, approximately 4 million are from Mexico and 2 million from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Many people who are in the United States illegally have overstayed their visas.
The Pew Research Center estimates that about 1.7 million illegal immigrants are from Asia, including about 725,000 from India and 775,000 from Europe or Canada.
