How immigration and border security dominated 2024 and decided an election

Immigration and border security were two issues that dominated news coverage and political debate in 2024, likely helping to decide the presidential election, as both candidates sought to present themselves as the best to tackle a historic border crisis and the consequences of the crisis were felt across the country.

In January, the U.S. remained in the throes of a migrant crisis that had exploded in 2021 and continued to roil the country throughout 2022 and 2023. In December 2023, encounters at the southern border hit a new record with more than 250,000 encounters in a single month.

It was a month that saw top Cabinet officials head to Mexico to attempt to persuade Mexican officials to do more to stop the flood of migrants heading north. As the presidential race, as well as congressional races, got into full swing in the early months of 2024, it became clear that the issue was likely to dominate the news cycle. Then-candidate Donald Trump promised to launch a mass deportation operation if elected, while President Biden touted a sharp drop in encounters since the beginning of the year as he also signed an executive order limiting asylum entries in June.

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Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 22, 2024, south of Sierra Vista, Ariz. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Border deal on the table?

A potential breakthrough emerged in February when Republicans and Democrats announced a border security bill in the Senate. The package gained the support of the Biden administration but quickly drew opposition from conservatives as well as some liberal Democrats.

The bill included increased funding for border agencies as well as an emergency authority to shut down entries at the southern border when encounters exceed a rolling seven-day average of 5,000 encounters. It would also expedite work permits for migrants and tighten asylum screening language.

Conservatives said the bill would codify high-border encounters, but the Biden administration and both the Biden and Harris campaigns would cite the bill as a bipartisan solution to the crisis that former President Donald Trump was rejecting for political purposes. 

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Migrant crime makes headlines

Tragically, 2024 saw a number of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, bringing the issue to the radar of even more voters.

In February, the death of Laken Riley, a Georgia college student, would bring the issue of migrant crime back to the headlines. Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who had been released into the U.S. in 2022, was charged with her murder.

In July, two illegal immigrants were arrested on capital murder charges in the death of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston. The men are accused of luring her under a bridge, tying her up and killing her before throwing her body into a river. 

While immigration activists would point to stats suggesting that immigrants commit fewer crimes than American citizens, those talking points appeared to do little to stem the outrage about the deaths of people at the hands of illegal immigrants who conservatives argued shouldn't have been let into the country in the first place.

Wish upon a czar

When President Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Vice President Harris became the nominee. Immediately, attention was drawn to her record leading the administration’s tackling of "root causes" of migration, a task that led her to be dubbed "the border czar" by some in the media and Republicans.

Vice President Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border with Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin, right, in Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2024. (REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images)

She therefore became a target for questions over the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis, but she faced additional pressure over her past radical positions on immigration she held during her 2019 presidential campaign. Her support for gender transition surgery for detained migrants hit the headlines and was used as a weapon against her by Republicans.

She would also move away from past statements in which she called for the decriminalization of illegal border crossings and for the closing of immigration detention centers. She had also mulled ICE starting again "from scratch."

A Harris campaign adviser told Fox during the campaign that her positions have been "shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration."

Parole out of place

The Biden administration’s use of humanitarian parole to bring in thousands of migrants via the CBP One app, both at the southern border and by approving their travel into the U.S. from four countries, blew up during election season amid reports about how Haitian migrants were affecting towns throughout the U.S.

Trump repeated claims about Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio during the presidential debate, marking one of the more viral moments of the debate with Harris.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

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While that claim was unsubstantiated, the impact of mass migration on towns in Ohio and elsewhere continued to be an issue until Election Day.

Trump holds his ground

With the Trump-Harris Election Day line-up set, polls consistently showed Trump with a yawning gap over Harris on suitability to handle the border crisis and illegal immigration, while voters also cited it as a top issue for them – often only second behind the economy.

Harris repeatedly hammered Trump on his failure to support the bipartisan border security bill, but the gap never really closed between the two as Trump continued to assign the border crisis to her leadership as "border czar."

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Trump would ultimately win the November election, and as he accepted victory, he reiterated his promise to voters.

"We're going to fix our borders. We're going to fix everything about our country," he said.