Where do the Republican presidential candidates stand on border security and immigration?

Border security and immigration are among the top issues motivating Republican voters in the upcoming presidential primary and general elections.

Republican candidates have been campaigning in Iowa for more than a year ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucuses on Monday, making frequent promises to secure the border and crack down on immigration.

Here's what candidates have to say about how they would approach border security.

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016 taking a hard-line immigration stance and promising to build a wall at the southern U.S. border.

While president, Trump imposed policies that required some asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting their trial dates, ramped up deportations and implemented a “zero tolerance” policy that led to hundreds of children being separated from their parents at the border.

He also built around 500 miles of new border wall, with much of it replacing existing structures.

Border security and immigration is again a central piece of Trump’s campaign this year, as he frequently paints a picture of chaos at the southern border under President Joe Biden. Trump says he will reinstate those policies in a second term and take more dramatic action to crack down on illegal immigration.

Those plans include implementing a mass deportation policy, empowering federal officials to aggressively seek out undocumented immigrants and expel them from the country.

At a rally in Newton in January, Trump said he would orchestrate “the largest deportation in history.”

Trump has also called for ending birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. The Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

Trump frequently refers to undocumented immigrants as criminals and says they are “poisoning the blood” of the United States, a line that has received comparisons to the writings of Adolf Hitler.

“A vote for Donald Trump in these caucuses is a vote to secure our border,” he said in Newton. “It’s a vote to stop the invasion, the biggest invasion of our country ever.”

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will declare a national emergency at the southern border and allow state and local law enforcement to carry out immigration enforcement.

DeSantis has been critical of Trump for failing to build the southern border wall while president. DeSantis says he will build the wall and charge remittances on the money workers send overseas in order to pay for it.

“We're going to declare the border to be a national emergency, I’ll mobilize resources,” he said. “We'll stop the invasion into the country. … We’ll designate the cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations.”

In a Des Moines Register op-ed, DeSantis said he would block a swath of asylum cases and “end the abuse of parole authority.” He also said he would authorize the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants.

DeSantis has said he also would authorize the use of deadly force on people smuggling drugs into the United States through the southern border.

DeSantis has said he would cancel the student visas of people who he deems to be supportive of Hamas. Like Trump, he said he would move to end birthright citizenship.

Nikki Haley

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for bolstering federal agencies and implementing stricter border policies to stem the flow of migrants at the southern border.

She says as governor of South Carolina she passed “the toughest illegal immigration law in the country.”

During a debate on CNN this week, she called for adding thousands of new agents to the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as pulling funding from sanctuary cities.

“We need to make sure we go back to the remain-in-Mexico policy, so that no one even steps foot on U.S. soil,” she said at the debate. “And instead of catch-and-release, we need to go to catch-and-deport. That's the only way we will stop the incentives of these illegal immigrants coming across.”

Haley has also signaled she will take action to deport the millions of undocumented migrants living in the U.S. During the debate, she said “you have to deport them.”

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has called for deporting undocumented immigrants and using the military to secure the southern border.

He has called for using military force on Mexican drug cartels as a response to the trafficking of fentanyl into the U.S.

“What we need to do is stop using our military to protect somebody else’s border halfway around the world when we’re short right here at home, get serious about protecting this border,” he said in a November debate.

Ramaswamy also has called for ending birthright citizenship.

Asa Hutchinson

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson led the Department of Homeland Security’s border security division shortly after its creation under President George W. Bush. The experience, he says, makes him uniquely qualified to deal with immigration and border security.

Hutchinson said in an interview he would meet with leaders in South and Latin America to partner on slowing the traffic of migrants at the southern border.

“We cannot invade Mexico, we have to partner with them, and that’s how you address border security,” he said. “I obviously would continue to build infrastructure. Not just the wall, but the infrastructure through technology.”

Ryan Binkley

Ryan Binkley, a Texas pastor and CEO, says he will reorganize the Department of Homeland Security and shift resources into the “essential operating components.”

He also calls for billions of dollars to build border infrastructure and update ports of entry.

At an event in December, Binkley called it “a true plan for security, but also that meets the strict worker needs that we have.”

Comments: cmccullough@qctimes.com