The race for president pits Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, against former President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Ohio’s U.S. Senate race
Moreno is critical of immigration policies in the President Joe Biden-Harris administration, which included overturning many of Trump’s policies.
“Sherrod Brown supported this reckless action. The open-border policies of this administration have allowed violent crime to skyrocket, an influx of illicit fentanyl, and lawless individuals who cross our border illegally to be rewarded,” said Moreno campaign spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy. “As a legal immigrant whose family came to America the right way, Bernie wholeheartedly supports legal immigration.”
Matt Keyes, spokesman for Brown’s campaign responded: “Bernie Moreno is lying about Sherrod’s record to distract from the fact that he opposed the strongest bipartisan border security bill in decades, which was endorsed by border patrol agents, and opposed the bill to protect Ohioans from fentanyl because he only looks out for himself.”
Brown’s positions and accomplishments in office include:
- Supported the bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance in Congress this year.
- Supports reforms to secure the southern border and fix the immigration system.
- Co-introduced the FEND Off Fentanyl Act expanding sanctions against fentanyl traffickers in Mexico and those making precursor chemicals in China, which passed this year.
- Co-introduced a 2023 bill that Congress approved that provided funding to protect border authorities from exposure to fentanyl during inspections.
- Co-sponsored the INTERDICT Act that passed in 2018 and provided high-tech screening equipment and lab resources to detect fentanyl at the border
- Co-introduced a bipartisan visa reform bill targeting fraud and abuse of the H-1B and L-1 visa programs for foreign workers.
Moreno’s positions include:
- Opposed the bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance in Congress this year.
- Calls for mass deportation of “illegal” immigrants beginning in January 2025.
- Supports increased funding for border wall construction.
- Wants to defund sanctuary cities.
- Opposes amnesty for immigrants.
- Calls for destroying Mexican drug cartels.
The race for president
When Biden took office in January 2021 he put in place new immigration policies and assigned Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration, with a focus on Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Migrant encounters with border patrol on the U.S. border with Mexico reached a record high during the Biden-Harris administration in December 2023 before dropping this year.
Trump says the Biden-Harris administration “opened” the border and allowed an “invasion.”
“This is the worst border in the history of the world,” Trump said at a March 16 rally for Moreno at Wright Bros. Areo in Dayton.
Trump calls Harris a “border czar.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
But Harris’ role does not include being in charge of the border, and instead focuses on economic development and fighting poverty, crime and corruption in those northern Central American countries, with the goal of deterring migration.
Biden initially kept in place Title 42, the policy Trump instituted as an emergency public health measure during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed quick expulsion of migrants, including asylum seekers. That policy ended with the pandemic emergency in May 2023, creating a huge outcry from Republicans and some Democrats, including Brown, who co-sponsored unsuccessful legislation to keep the restriction in place.
The number of migrants encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the southwest border at or between designated ports of entry grew from a monthly total of 73,994 in December 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place to 301,981 in December 2023, before declining to 104,116 in July, according to the CBP.
The encounter data does not indicate how many of those were encounters with individuals attempting to cross the border repeatedly or how many were denied entry.
However, an August 16 CBP news release said, “Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010 and a majority of all southwest border encounters during the past three fiscal years resulted in a removal, return, or expulsion.”
In early June Biden issued an executive order that migrants crossing unlawfully would be turned away, without getting their asylum claims heard, when average daily crossings reach a certain threshold.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
Border crossings declined quickly after the rule went into place and by July unlawful crossings between designated ports of entry on the southwest border totaled 56,408, the lowest level since September 2020, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release in August.
Both Trump and Moreno say if elected they would begin a mass deportation of immigrants they refer to as “illegals.” Neither Trump nor Moreno has explained how they would handle the logistics and cost of finding, detaining and removing millions of people, nor what would happen to those whose children are American citizens.
In Ohio 36% of unauthorized immigrants reside with at least one U.S. citizen child under 18, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration policy and research organization in Washington D.C.
Harris and Brown question Trump and Moreno’s commitment to a border solution since both Republicans opposed this year’s bipartisan border security bill, which would have pumped money into border enforcement, added border patrol agents, immigration judges and asylum officers, allowed authorities to turn back immigrants when migration reached certain thresholds and boosted anti-drug smuggling efforts, including the FEND Off Fentanyl Act which later passed as part of a different bill.
Harris and Brown supported the border security bill, but it lost Republican support in Congress earlier this year when Trump came out against it.
“Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal,” Harris said in her speech accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22.
Trump denounced the border bill in a Jan. 29 post on Truth Social, his social media network.
“They are using this horrific Senate Bill as a way of being able to put the BORDER DISASTER onto the shoulders of the Republicans,” Trump said.
Trump’s positions and accomplishments in office include:
- Said he will begin a mass deportation of “illegal” immigrants on his first day in office.
- Wants to overturn “birthright citizenship,” which gives U.S. born children automatic citizenship under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
- Supports boosting border enforcement, including reinstating his policy forcing migrants to stay in Mexico while waiting for their asylum cases to be heard.
- Wants to deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to assist with deportations.
- Supports the death penalty for drug smugglers and traffickers.
- As president his administration completed 458 miles of primary and secondary border barriers, mostly replacing smaller or dilapidated barriers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact.
Harris’ positions and accomplishments in office include:
- Supports reforms to secure the southern border and fix the immigration system.
- Supports an “earned pathway to citizenship.”
- Wants to boost the fight against human trafficking and fentanyl.
- Calls for adding thousands of border agents.
- Led the White House diplomatic effort in northern Central America, forming a public-private sector partnership and garnering $5.2 billion in private sector commitments to create economic opportunity there, according to the White House.
- As California attorney general she “fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities,” Harris said in her nomination speech.
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