IOnce elected, Vice President Kamala Harris said she would push Congress to pass the border security bill drafted by Republicans and Democrats earlier this year. That failed deal became the centerpiece of Harris’ campaign promises on immigration and offers a window into Harris’ likely approach to immigration as president.

The bipartisan bill would have added thousands of border guards and other immigration staff, speeded up immigration decisions and made it more difficult to apply for asylum in the US. The bill was supported by the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents border agents. But the effort died when Donald Trump publicly pressured Republicans to drop the deal, calling it “death wish” for the GOP.

During Biden’s first three years in office, the Border Patrol apprehended an average of about 2 million people a year trying to enter the US between border crossings. Illegal crossings at the US border dropped this summer after the Biden administration added limits on asylum during illegal border crossing periods.

Voters have consistently ranked immigration as one of their top issues in the 2024 election. For months, polls have shown the issue to be a soft spot for Harris. Trump labeled Harris as “border tsar,” trying to blame her for the country’s immigration challenges and exaggerating her diplomatic charge as vice president to reduce the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Since becoming the party’s nominee, Harris has tacked at the border security center. At campaign events and in ads and interviews, she highlighted her work as a prosecutor in California bringing cases against transnational crime syndicates and human traffickers.

Here’s what you need to know about Harris’ immigration plan should he win the presidential election.

Several Border Patrol agents

Harris supports adding more Border Patrol agents. In February, Republicans and Democrats in Congress had agreed on a border security agreement which would have added 1,500 more immigration agents and staff and expanded the roster of immigration judges and asylum officers. Harris has repeatedly said he will push Congress to pass that bill if he becomes president.

The deal would also expand immigration detention. Harris supports provisions in the border bill that would add more immigration detention beds, bringing the current total from 34,000 beds to about 50,000 beds. This means more people are being held by immigration officials while their deportation cases are being heard in court.

More asylum officers and immigration judges

Harris also supported provisions in the bill aimed at staffing officials who determine who is allowed to stay in the US. The deal would add 4,300 new asylum officers to speed up decisions about who gets asylum protection and who doesn’t. This would likely reduce delays and speed up the removal of those who do not qualify. Harris also proposed opening more offices overseas where people can make asylum claims.

“It can take years for asylum applications to be decided,” Harris said in September while campaigning in Douglas, Arizona. “Well, this is a problem we can solve, including by hiring more asylum officers and expanding processing centers in people’s countries of origin. “

Harris also advocates adding 100 immigration court judges and related support staff to address backlogs in immigration cases that have lengthened the time people wait in the U.S. to hear about a deportation decision. Those changes would require additional funding from Congress, and Harris would have to convince Republican lawmakers to follow the compromise agreement reached earlier this year.

A higher bar for asylum claims

As vice president, Harris supported limiting new asylum applications when illegal border crossings rose to more than 2,500 a day as a way to discourage migrants from showing up at the border. Harris also supported tougher provisions in the bipartisan border deal that would have increased requirements for people seeking asylum in the US. Asylum seekers would have to demonstrate that there is no safe place to avoid persecution in their country of origin, including moving to another country. city.

Harris also supported provisions in the bill that made it easier to deport asylum seekers who don’t meet the necessary standards for protection. Under the plan, new asylum seekers would be placed in either a fast-track removal process or a six-month process run by asylum officers outside the immigration justice system called a “protection determination.”

Expand legal pathways for immigrants

Campaigning in Douglas, Arizona, in September, Harris said the country does not have to choose between securing the border and making the immigration system more orderly and humane. “We can and must do both,” Harris said. “We need clear, legal pathways for people who want to come to our country, and we need to make our current system work better.”

Harris supports adding 250,000 family and employment visas over five years, provisions that were in the bipartisan border deal he pledged to restore.

She also promised to move on. She promised that as president she would work to create an earned path to citizenship for Americans in the country without authorization. “I will work with Congress to finally create a path to citizenship for working immigrants who have been here for years and years and deserve to have a system that works,” Harris said in Arizona in September.