Chile’s presidential race is heating up, and immigration is at the center of the debate. Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, currently polling neck-and-neck with communist contender Jeannette Jara, has doubled down on his hardline stance.

Kast vowed to make illegal migration a crime and deport all undocumented migrants—including children. He promised that migrants awaiting deportation would be held in temporary detention centers, a move critics say mirrors former U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies. Kast also proposed a special prison for foreign nationals who commit crimes, followed by expulsion once their sentence is served.

His platform leans heavily on law and order, pledging to go to “war” against organized crime, build maximum-security prisons modeled on El Salvador’s infamous Terrorist Confinement Center, and crack down on the foreign gangs many Chileans blame for rising violence.

Although Chile still has one of the lowest murder rates in Latin America, the rate has more than doubled in the last decade, with drug trafficking and extortion on the rise. Public concern over insecurity has become a decisive election issue.

Kast’s rhetoric is not new—he previously floated the idea of building a border wall with Bolivia to block undocumented migration. And with immigration numbers climbing—Chile’s foreign-born population has nearly doubled in seven years, now making up 8.8% of the nation’s nearly 20 million people—his promises are striking a chord with voters.

With the first-round vote on November 16 and a likely runoff on December 14, Kast’s hardline message may propel him further than in his previous runs. But whether Chileans embrace his Trump-style policies—or turn to Jara’s leftist platform—will shape the nation’s future for years to come.