He called for the reinstatement of the “Title 42” ban, which Trump imposed on asylum seekers to the United States in the name of public health during the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

“The solution to this problem is to put a moratorium on asylum requests,” he says. “This will really stop this uncontrollable list of people coming to the borders and then seeking asylum. It’s like a passport: ‘Don’t touch me, I’m requesting asylum’.”

He argues that there is nothing contradictory in his work as an advocate for illegal immigrants and his political opposition to their entry into the United States.

“The doctor doesn’t help people overdose, but after they overdose, that doctor will help them, even if that doctor doesn’t support people who use drugs,” he says. “I am an immigration doctor.”

However, an attorney petitioning the government to keep immigrants in the U.S. has surprisingly strong views on border security. He ran for mayor of Miami in 2021 but was disqualified because he lived outside the city limits.

Like many Americans not born in this country, he now feels it is his duty to protect the country from outsiders.

“I need to protect the land I live in,” he says. “I can’t just destroy it like it’s just a frat party and nobody cares about the house. This is not an Airbnb. This is a home.”

central concern

The asylum system, though rarely discussed directly by Trump or Ms. Harris on the campaign trail, is a key concern of policymakers and law enforcement working on border security.

The Title 42 ban was ended by Mr. Biden last May with the repeal of the last pandemic-related emergency regulations.

Since he took office in 2021, the number of asylum applications filed in US courts each year has more than quadrupled; More immigrants than ever came from outside South America.

Many of the latest arrivals come from China and are smuggled to the border through Central America by criminal gangs. The share of families in total migrants has increased sharply, creating a worsening dilemma for authorities faced with young children at the border.

David Hathaway, the sheriff of Arizona’s Santa Cruz County, spends most of his time in the city of Nogales, which sits on the Mexican border and provides an entry point for immigrants seeking asylum or work.

He rejects claims that immigrants cause more crime and points out that crime rates in his county are lower than in the rest of the state.

Instead, he says, the problem is mostly the bureaucratic structure that welcomes newcomers looking for work.

“This asylum program is a disaster,” he says. “What we need is a guest worker program.”

“Donald Trump says all Mexicans who come here are rapists, murderers, drug dealers and criminals. “People like this sensational rhetoric, but because they don’t live here, they don’t know what it’s really like.”