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I advised Kamala Harris on immigration – these are the hard truths that Labour must learn

Trump promises the deportation of illegal migrants will begin at ‘light speed’ after his inauguration – and Frank Sharry, the outgoing vice-president’s adviser on immigration, says the Democrats lost the election by letting him weaponise the issue. Something Britain’s PM cannot afford to let happen here...

Thursday 16 January 2025 15:38 EST
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What is the Migrant Caravan heading to the Mexico-US border?

When the new US president Donald Trump enters the White House after his inauguration on Monday, the world will hold its breath as we wait to see what follows – for Ukraine and diplomacy, tariffs and the global economy, and democracy vs authoritarianism.

In the US, the UK, across Europe and beyond, populist voices will be emboldened, hardening political, media and policy discourse, especially about the issue on which Trump rode to power: migration.

Populists like Trump weaponise migration in order to exploit grievances and gain power. In the US election, immigration and border security turned out to be Trump’s best issue and Kamala Harris’s worst. Polling by the progressive group Navigator shows that Harris ended her campaign trailing Trump by 20 points on immigration and border security – even though most will oppose his mass deportation plan if it is perceived by voters to be cruel and chaotic.

In the UK, migration is similarly a top-tier issue, seized upon by populist voices, and in the EU, the issue continues to roil politics and influence election outcomes.

What should advocates of liberal democracy, and balanced immigration policies, do to respond to the populist challenge on migration?

Here are some important lessons that Keir Starmer’s Labour government can learn from America.

1. Leaders must lean into the migration issue

If voters care about the issue – and they do – you have to engage, not run away from it.

The Biden-Harris administration got this horribly wrong. They mostly avoided the issue of migration and border security in the hope of diminishing its salience. This paved the way for Trump and the Republicans to cast Democrats as the party of “open borders” who were encouraging “an invasion”. By the time newly minted candidate Harris leaned into the issue forcefully, and the administration brought down the level of southern border arrivals dramatically, it was too late to convince voters.

The good news is that Labour leaned into the issue during its election campaign, and continues to do so. Now the party has to deliver measurable results – no easy feat in this era of accelerating global migration.

2. Most voters are not anti-immigrant – but they want control and compassion

When it comes to immigration, citizens want their elected leaders to “mind the store”. As the Democrats found out in America and the Conservatives found out in the UK, the failure to do so is politically costly. The “all or nothing” advocates on both ends of the spectrum are outnumbered by the majority of voters, who want “both/and” – orderly migration policies that admit immigrants and refugees in a fair, efficient manner, along with strict controls that reduce chaos and illegal migration.

Starmer gets it. He scrapped the costly and cruel Rwanda scheme while stepping up removals of asylum seekers whose claims had failed – embodying both compassion and control.

But public cynicism, along with anger over small boat arrivals, is high. His government needs to translate concern into competence by setting out more clearly what his approach is going to be, and why he believes in it – and he must show he can deliver what the majority of voters want.

‘British society may be increasingly polarised, but not to the same extent as in the US’
‘British society may be increasingly polarised, but not to the same extent as in the US’ (AFP via Getty)

3. In government, you have to get the policy right as well as the politics

For three years, President Biden failed to bring down the high levels of irregular border arrivals. Remarkably, in year four of his presidency, his administration succeeded, by combining and scaling individual elements that they had been developing. The keys? Cooperation from Mexico and other allies that disrupt smuggling; controls on asylum that undermine the smugglers’ business model; and safe and legal pathways that encourage orderly alternatives to irregular migration.

As a result, border arrivals plummeted by 77 per cent in six months. Currently, the number of people crossing the border is lower than when Trump left office in 2021.

Much to their disappointment, however, Biden and Harris received no credit from voters for having achieved this. They had lost the political and communications battle so thoroughly that their reputation as incompetent and indifferent on illegal migration overwhelmed the results.

The Labour government should take notice. The challenge is to get the policy, the narrative and the politics aligned to distinguish solid governance from the simplistic takes and false promises of their opponents. Not easy, but essential.

4. Multilateralism matters

Too often, nations debate irregular migration as if it’s a challenge that starts at the receiving country’s borders. In an era of increased global migration, such myopia misreads the nature of the problem and the policy elements needed to manage it.

Multilateralism – collaborating with other countries to address collective challenges – and the hard work of diplomacy are essential components of any effective “control and compassion” policy regime, while unilateral solutions are but a populist fantasy. Slogans don’t produce results – cooperation, controls and compassion do.

Starmer’s government is prioritising multilateralism as it works to bring irregular migration under better control. Measurable results in bringing down small boat arrivals won’t be possible without deeper levels of cooperation with France, the EU, and the countries that are the key sources of irregular migration.

5. Starmer must lead by example

Britain isn’t America. Two-thirds of Britons see Donald Trump as dangerous, and most don’t want Trumpism to take hold in the UK. Society may be increasingly polarised in Britain, but not to the same extent as in the US.

As my colleagues in the UK like to say, this is not a call to complacency but a call to action – to defend shared common ground and resist divisive populism. Britain has the potential to be the last bastion of liberal values against a rising tide of populism sweeping across the US and continental Europe.

Starmer needs to shoulder that weight and show global leadership – but he needs to lead by example, by getting things right at home.

I am but one American rooting for Starmer to defuse populism by getting the politics and policy of immigration right. America is a cautionary tale that comes with hints of how to do so.

Here’s hoping that the British government succeeds where the Biden-Harris administration failed – both as a matter of governance and a matter of election results. Centre-left forces in the democratic world are watching closely in the hope that you do.

Frank Sharry was lead adviser on immigration policy to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, and led US migration NGOs America’s Voice and the National Immigration Forum in Washington DC

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