Harris warns of mass deportations and detention camps if Trump is elected

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris warned of mass deportations and “massive detention camps” if former President Donald Trump returned to office, telling an audience of Hispanic leaders in Washington that his immigration agenda was a danger to the country.

“We all remember what they did to tear families apart,” Harris said at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus event, part of an effort to build up support among Latino voters. “And now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history.”

The crowd turned from jovial to silent as the vice president asked them to dig deeper into Trump’s proposals, which include plans to round up people in the country illegally on a mass scale and to detain them in camps pending their deportation.

“Imagine what that would look like and what that would be,” Harris said. “How’s that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?”

Harris paired the attack on Trump’s agenda with pledges to prioritize security at the border and provide an “earned pathway to citizenship.” She has sought a balancing act as polls have shown some Latino voters trust Trump over Democrats on the border.

Many Latino voters have also warmed to Trump’s immigration proposals, including his plan for mass deportations, which U.S. officials say would encounter major legal and logistical hurdles. But Trump remains unpopular with Latino voters overall, and many Latino voters want to see both tough border security measures and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.

Since she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Harris has shown signs of gains with Latino voters, including in the crucial Sun Belt region. But her support among Latinos has still been lower than the traditional Democratic benchmark.

Harris did not speak only about immigration during Wednesday’s appearance. She also detailed the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce prescription drug prices and her own proposals to address a housing shortage. Her allies have acknowledged that immigration policies may not sway Latino voters who are frustrated with the economy and high consumer prices.

But even when detailing a proposal to help first-time homebuyers, Harris cited her family’s immigrant past to emphasize her understanding of the struggle many in the room had faced.

“People just want to get their foot in the door,” said Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. “My mother worked hard, she saved up. And the American dream is elusive for far too many people.”

Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist, said Harris delivered a “new shot of energy” into the Democratic effort to sway Latinos because of her identity as a child of immigrants and her recognition that the community has a mix of priorities as voters, rather than any one issue.

“The initial bump from all the polling I’ve been doing in Latino areas is, ‘Oh my God, she’s not Joe Biden, and she’s a woman and a woman of color and she’s a daughter of immigrants,’” Rocha said.

He added, however, that Harris is “not at the level she needs to be” and Latino voters are still seeking more information about Harris.

It is a challenge the vice president faces with voters across the country. A recent national poll of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College found Trump leading Harris, 48% to 47%, within the margin of error. The survey found that 28% of likely voters said they felt they needed to know more about Harris, while only 9% said they needed to know more about Trump.

In recent days, Harris’ campaign has sought to reintroduce her to Latino voters by devoting $3 million for new advertisements on Spanish-language radios, dispatched Latino surrogates to key swing states and sent campaign officials to a championship boxing fight between Canelo Álvarez and Edgar Berlanga.

Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged how important Latinos are in this year’s election. An estimated 36.2 million are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. But in 2020, a Pew survey found that Latinos were less likely than white or Black voters to be contacted by campaigns or organizations supporting candidates.

“They just want to hear more about her,” Rocha said of Latino voters, adding that her campaign needed to emphasize digital advertising to reach younger voters. “You’re not going to reach English-speaking Latinos when you’re targeting ads to white or Black people because they’re not the same thing.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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