Reading the Preston article post-election was really interesting. She provides a clear roadmap for what’s about to come – and how dangerous it could be. The article was everything I had heard about the two immigration stances rolled into one article. I think she summarized the two candidates’ policy positions really well – especially that Trump’s position and policies are based in racist and violent rhetoric.

For Harris: “curbing unauthorized border crossings and fixing the dysfunctional U.S. asylum system—a central driver of the growing disorder at the southern border over the past decade. She aims to build more secure and orderly channels for migrants to enter the country while also opening pathways for undocumented immigrants already settled in the United States to attain legal status”

For Trump: “Trump has promised to extend enforcement far into the interior, unleashing a nationwide blitz of punitive deportations to forcibly expel millions of immigrants. He also wants to limit new legal immigration”

She aptly uses Springfield as an example of Trump’s words having consequences and notes that he has said he will target those (legal) migrants first in his mass deportation plan. I also appreciated how she summarized his policy during his last presidential term and how those policies (especially Title 42) didn’t necessarily work as a deterrance. Promises left unfulfilled, leading to chaos.

Her section on the Biden and Harris administration border policy was also well written. She backs up her claim that “Despite the return of a semblance of order to the border, the political damage to Democrats was done” very well. This is especially for when she is discussing how the administration had to clean up what Trump left behind.

My biggest question for this piece concerns the format and placement. Preston writes it herself: immigration was one of, if not the most important topic for voters in the 2024 election. And perhaps this is making an assumption here, but I don’t think the average voter is reading Foreign Affairs – nor would read a long-form explanation and analysis like this. The attention span is limited – perhaps bullet points or a shorter analysis, with a longer explanation as an option. And it seems like the average Foreign Affairs reader would already be informed enough to have made a decision about immigration policy already. So who is this for?

In support of the roadmap that Preston laid out, Graham shows that now Trump has won the election, how is is planning to carry out his policies. To quote the headline, he is serious about the deportations. I appreciated how clearly Graham laid out the various people and roles (especially the sentence “If Miller is the architect of mass deportation, Homan will be the builder.”). It will be interesting to watch how closely this plan comes to reality, especially given how many laws would be broken and how devastating it would be to the economy should the plan be carried out. It certainly will be a story to watch – will he truly start in Springfield like he said? Will he truly deport all those millions of people? How will industries like agriculture be affected?