Comparing the Harris and Trump Town Halls with Latinos

Many of the audience members in the two events were residents of towns close to the U.S. border with Mexico in states like Arizona and California. Questions on border security featured heavily in both forums.

“The border has been a disaster,” said Trump, whose pledge to build a border wall has been central to his three presidential campaigns. He critiqued President Joe Biden’s administration, making claims that they have allowed convicted murderers and gang members to enter the country. Trump called it “an open border policy.” He boasted about border security under his presidency, stating, “I had the safest, most secure border and people came in legally.” While it is true that apprehensions at the border were for most months higher under Biden than Trump, there were months in 2019 under Trump where migrant encounters were higher than during the entire Obama administration.

He did not outline any specific policies he planned to implement to secure the border.

Harris was also asked about border security, specifically what she would do differently from what has been done in the Biden administration. “My pledge to you is that, by the grace of God, and hopefully with your support as well, when I am elected president, I will bring back that border security bill, and I will sign it into law,” she said, referencing a bipartisan bill that was blocked in the Senate in 2024. That bill would have increased deportations and provided more funding for border agents, technology, and additional border wall construction. Harris called it “one of the strongest border security bills we’ve had in decades.” “Fifteen hundred more border agents would have gone to the border—except Donald Trump got in the way of that bill,” she said, referring to the ex-president's pressure on his allies to come out against the proposal.

Harris also highlighted her experience as attorney general of California, saying she would put her record “up against anyone,” in terms of the work she “has always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border.”

Many of the Latino participants in the town halls were naturalized U.S. citizens and some came from families that included non-citizen residents. One questioner’s grandparents had been part of the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican seasonal laborers to come to the United States in the mid-20th century. Another voter, referencing their late mother, asked about policies towards the sub-group of immigrants who “live in the shadows.”

Harris vowed to focus on creating an “orderly and humane pathway to earned citizenship for hardworking people,” alongside investing in border security. She said, “I think it is a false choice for people who would say you do one or the other. I believe we must do both,” referring to border security and pathways to citizenship. She reiterated the “earned pathway to citizenship” pledge later in the town hall, when asked specifically about the situation of DREAMers, children who were brought to the United States without documentation. She called the “earned pathway to citizenship” one of her priorities, but did not detail what this process would entail.

Trump most directly spoke to pathways to legal immigration by highlighting his “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their asylum hearing date. Though the Biden administration opposed “Remain in Mexico,” the policy stayed in place until October 2022 due to a variety of legal challenges.

Otherwise, Trump spotlighted the impact of migrants on the communities they reside in. After being questioned about migrants by a voter from the suburbs of Chicago, Trump focused most of his answer on crime, echoing his performance in the September 10 debate.

Trump also spoke on migration in the context of Springfield, Ohio. During the September 10 debate, Trump spoke about the actions of Haitian migrants in the town, parroting unproven theories that migrants were consuming pets. When directly asked if he regretted making these statements, Trump did not retract his statement but later spoke about how the introduction of migrants has impacted the town: “You couldn’t get into a hospital, you couldn’t get your children into a school, you wouldn’t be able to buy groceries, you can no longer pay.” Trump did not outline how he planned to reform the immigration system.

A majority of Latino voters, like U.S. voters generally, agree that the economy is the most pressing issue facing their country. Cost of living was the most frequently cited top issue in the UnidosUS/BSP August survey, followed by jobs and housing. 

Trump was particularly critical of the economy in his town hall, focusing on what he called “record-setting inflation.” Trump spoke about the high cost of groceries, rent, and buying a house.

How did he propose to grow the economy? Through “a combination of taxes, tariffs, and incentives, companies are going to be coming into our country,” Trump claimed. He specifically spoke of bringing auto manufacturing back to the United States while addressing a recent Mexican American college graduate who asked about job opportunities.

Trump also spoke of helping the economy by developing oil and gas, which he called “liquid gold.” And he spoke of his plan to “cut a lot of waste and abuse that won’t affect anybody other than our bottom line as a country” when asked by a Cuban American voter about the national debt.

During Harris’ forum, a woman who said her five daughters and Mexican parents live with her and her husband, asked the vice president how she would “make sure that the cost of life doesn’t destroy the middle class.” Harris responded “I know prices are too high still…And we have to deal with it.”

How does she plan to do so? Harris said one of the issues she would take on is “price gouging,” which generally refers to the spike of prices when supplies are limited, like after a natural disaster. Harris has proposed banning this practice. She also spoke of increasing the Child Tax Credit to $6,000 for families during the first year of their child’s life. Regarding housing, Harris said she would give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment assistance and plans to work with the private sector to build three million more houses. “Listen, I’m a capitalist. I believe in the strength of the private sector to create jobs and to work with government to strengthen the economy,” she said.

Speaking about small businesses, Harris said she plans to extend the current $5,000 tax deduction to $50,000. Harris also stated plans to have Medicare cover the cost of seniors’ home health care, a proposal she recently announced. 

Trump was directly confronted by a Cuban American voter about his stance on the January 6 uprising that sought to overturn the results of the 2024 election. “That was a day of love,” Trump said. “Some of those people went down to the Capitol… peacefully and patriotically, nothing done wrong at all. Nothing done wrong,” he continued.

Harris was also confronted directly by one of the voters, a Uruguayan who became a U.S. citizen over 28 years ago, who expressed concern about how she became a candidate, “without going through the primary sort of caucus, like it usually happens” and his feeling that “President Biden was pushed aside.” Harris called Biden’s decision “courageous” and took the opportunity to speak about democracy more broadly. “Donald Trump has said he will be a dictator on day one,” she said, acknowledging that many people in the room come from countries where they know what this means. She said this is an “unusual time” and that the choice is between a path “about rule of law, democracy” or “about admiring dictators and autocracy.”

Trump called Biden stepping down from the race “a coup” in his town hall.

A voter, saying she has a daughter, asked Harris what she would do differently as the first woman president, specifically to make sure abortion is accessible. Harris criticized Trump’s selection of three Supreme Court judges that struck down Roe v. Wade, the legal decision that enshrined abortion as a right in the United States. She also spoke about the consequences this decision has had on IVF treatments and care for women having miscarriages. She emphasized that she does not want to change people’s opinions on abortion—polls show these vary in the Latino community by generation, religion, and language groups. Instead, Harris said this should not be the government’s decision. 

“I will proudly sign back into law the protections of Roe v. Wade, which basically just says it’s the person’s decision, not the government’s decision. That, in essence, is what’s behind my position,” she said.

Asked by a Puerto Rican voter about his stance on reproductive rights, Trump bragged that he oversaw the repeal of Roe v. Wade. “I was able to do that, and with the courage of six great Supreme Court justices who are brilliant and courageous,” he said. Trump celebrated that decisions around reproductive rights are no longer set federally. “[It’s] going back to the states and a vote of the people. It’s out of the federal government now, which is so good.”

Trump did say he supports abortion in some situations. “I believe in the exceptions for the life of the mother, rape, and incest. So, I believe in exceptions,” he said.