Podcast: The Immigration Debate in PA

Issue animates supporters of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris far from the border

A majority of Allentown’s residents are now Hispanic according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a demographic shift that's given fresh importance in Pennsylvania’s third-largest city to one of the big issues in the presidential election: immigration and securing the southern border. 

For the last episode of The Wall Street Journal’s “Chasing the Vote” podcast series, I came to the Keystone State to talk to voters about immigration. Former President Donald Trump has centered his campaign around cracking down on illegal immigration and blames migrants for crime and competition for jobs. Many Democrats see the influx of migrants as a source of economic growth and cultural richness, even though many in the party agree with Republicans that the situation on the southern border is a crisis. 

Click here to listen to the episode online and see a full transcript. You can also click to get it on Apple podcastsor on Spotify. And for an additional dimension of the coverage, look at this photo essay that I made with Cam Pollack of some wonderful images taken by Heather Khalifa.

In eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, immigration has cropped up as a big issue in Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild’s re-election bid against Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican who visited the border with Mexico as part of his campaign.

I also went to Lancaster, a bit further south, where Democrats passed a “welcoming city” ordinance that kicked off a dispute with Republicans who control the county government. So even 1,500 miles from the border, this topic loomed large on everyone’s mind. And it was very hard to find common ground.

Republicans I spoke with generally said their concerns about illegal immigration weren't based on their day-to-day lives, but on what they've seen about other places on the news. They were a little less excited about another key part of Trump's platform, mass deportations. But they still expressed fear over how migrants would change their communities, creating something of a feedback loop: Trump and other GOP candidates keep talking about the issue and their advantage on it has grown.

At the same time, widespread concerns about immigration and border control have put Democrats on defense. I found Harris supporters who said they understood the need for more border security and were concerned by the sheer scope of illegal crossing since 2020. But they were more likely to say immigrants who came here illegally should be given a chance to build new lives rather than be deported.

It's clear Republicans have a political advantage on this issue; indeed, a WSJ poll released last month found by a 16-point margin that voters in battleground states, including Pennsylvania, trust Trump more than Harris to handle immigration and border security. That’s partly because Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats have been reluctant to lean into the stories of people like Greenberg Lemus.

He was born in Guatemala and told me he crossed the border illegally in 1991. He eventually became a citizen and now owns his own restaurant in Allentown, where he has Susan Wild signs hanging. He questioned Trump’s deportation plans.

“He wants to get everybody out of here, who's going to do the job, who's going to do the hard work?” Lemus said.

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