The immigration policies proposed in the 2024 Republican Party Platform would reduce the national security risks that the current administration has created by failing to secure the border and letting millions of migrants into the country that little, if anything, is known about. According to former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan, this has resulted in the biggest national security vulnerability since 9/11.
Republicans will terminate the programs the current administration has been using to let migrants into the country without visas, as well as secure the border and enforce the immigration laws in the interior of the country.
Immigration provisions in the Republican Platform
1. Secure the border. Republicans will terminate the current administration’s lax border security measures and restore the border security measures of the Trump administration. They will complete the border wall that Trump started during his first term in office, and use advanced technology to monitor and secure the border. They also will deploy thousands of federal troops at the border.
Illegal border crossings have soared under the current administration. The number of illegal crossers taken into custody by the Border Patrol has reached the highest level in the agency’s 100-year history, averaging 2 million per year.
The extent to which federal troops can assist in securing the border is unclear. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids using federal armed forces for civilian law enforcement, but there are exceptions. The Department of Defense has interpreted the act as limiting military involvement to a supporting role, but the department’s implementing rules permit broad interpretations of which activities constitute permissible support.
2. Enforce immigration laws in the interior of the country. Republicans will strengthen ICE, increase penalties for illegal entry and overstaying visas, and reinstate the policies that helped to reduce illegal immigration during Trump's first term. They also will invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport gang members, drug dealers and cartel members; bring back the Travel Ban; and use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis by returning trafficked children to their families in their home countries.
The current administration has limited immigration enforcement measures to deportable immigrants who pose a threat to our national security, public safety and border security. This means that illegal border crossers who reach the interior of the country are home free unless they draw attention to themselves and appear to pose such a threat. When illegal crossers know they will be safe from deportation once they have reached the interior, they will keep trying until they succeed in reaching it.
3. Increase deportations. Republicans will deport the immigrants without visas that the current administration released into the country, prioritizing the identification and removal of terrorists and dangerous criminals.
This is likely to start with the 2 million immigrants the current administration paroled into the country. Immigrants who have been paroled and allowed to physically enter the United States have not been “admitted” for immigration purposes. If the Department of Homeland Security revokes their parole status, they will revert to the status they had before they were paroled into the country: i.e., “applicants for admission.”
Moreover, they will be ineligible for asylum if it has been more than a year since their arrival and they haven’t already filed an asylum application — unless they can satisfy the requirements for a changed circumstances exception. The government also can prevent them from applying for asylum in the United States by removing them to a safe third country under a two-party or multi-party agreement between the United States and other countries.
4. Strengthen vetting procedure. Republicans will use federal law to keep foreign “Christian-hating communists, Marxists, and socialists out of America," and use vetting to “ensure that jihadists and jihadist sympathizers are not admitted.”
Vetting is needed to identify terrorists and other criminals who are seeking to enter the United States, but effective vetting isn’t possible when the governments of the countries the migrants come from won’t provide information about them.
The previous administration developed a “baseline” for the information needed from foreign governments, and the Travel Ban order suspended the entry of nationals from countries that refused to provide this information.
5. Penalize sanctuary cities. Republicans will rescind federal funding to so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that “release dangerous immigrant criminals onto our streets” instead of cooperating with ICE.
ICE lodges detainers for immigrants who have been arrested or incarcerated on criminal charges and are believed to be deportable. The detainer asks the law enforcement agency that has custody over them to notify ICE when they are about to be released, and to hold them for several days to give ICE a chance take custody of them when they are released.
Sanctuary jurisdictions disregard these detainers and sometimes release dangerous criminals into the community. Public safety officials are increasingly concerned that these migrants will reoffend.
6. Put American workers first. Republicans will prioritize “merit-based” immigration to ensure that the migrants admitted to our country can “contribute positively to our society and economy.”
The difference between legal and illegal immigration is that legal immigrants are selected on the basis of America’s employment and family reunification needs; undocumented immigrants decide for themselves whether they want to come here. If undocumented immigrants meet American’s needs, it is mere happenstance.
A merit-based selection system like the one Canada uses would base our selection of immigrants on how well they meet our needs.
Will the Republicans be able to implement these immigration policies if they prevail in the upcoming elections? I hope so. But if millions of migrants that little, if anything, is known about continue to be released into the country, it will just be a matter of time before another 9/11-level terrorist attack occurs. In fact, the current administration may already have released terrorists into the country who are planning such an attack.
Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an Executive Branch Immigration Law Expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.
