Immigration Reform and Immigration

Immigration and the Presidential Election

United States immigration reform is one of the most controversial issues in this presidential election and represent significant policy gap between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates respectively. Based on their proposals, Trump and Clinton have taken opposite sides in the quest to implement immigration reforms if elected president. While these candidates favor secure borders as a crucial component for U.S. growth and stability, they differ on how they would address major immigrant issues. The candidates' proposals are radical and have attracted considerable criticism in which Trump's proposals are seen as un-American whereas Clinton's proposals are regarded as undermining immigration policies (Liu, 2016).

The key perspective of Trump's immigration reform platform is anti-immigrant in view of his proposals. If elected president, Trump would create a new deportation taskforce that will help identify criminals and remove immigration violators from the country (Sarlin & Seitz-Wald, 2016). Donald Trump has promised to eliminate any undocumented immigrant arrested for a criminal offense. In addition, the Republican presidential nominee has issued stern warning that no immigrant will be exempt from or immune to law enforcement. To achieve his proposals, Trump seeks to create a wall in the Mexican-U.S. border while making the Mexican government cater for the costs. Secondly, he proposed mass deportations of every illegal immigrant in the United States. Third, Trump would ensure refugees seeking asylum in the United States are extremely vetted as well as a total blackout of Muslim immigration to the country.

On the contrary, the key perspective of Clinton's immigration reform platform is pursuing legislation that enables qualifying immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship. In case she does not achieve this within the first 100 days in office, Clinton will use executive action to protect undocumented immigrants from mass deportations. In addition, the Democratic presidential nominee has promised that she would not break up families or deport children. In essence, Hillary Clinton would make it easier for qualifying immigrants to become American citizens if elected president. To this extent, she proposes comprehensive immigration reforms that result in the end of Congress' regulations that force deportation of undocumented immigrants. Clinton seeks to achieve these proposals through supporting new immigration laws that would generate a path to American citizenship. Secondly, she would make it easier for immigrants to become neutralized citizens through smooth integration that involves lessening language, economic, and education barriers. Third, Clinton will change detention policies to ensure immigrants have other cost-effective alternatives like supervised release (Valverde, 2016).