Vice President Kamala Harris has previously pledged to close most of the nation’s immigration detention centers, saying she would “close the immigration detention centers” if she were president, a plan that would see the release of roughly 90% of illegal immigrants held there.
In 2019, while running in the Democratic presidential primary, Harris told a crowd in Iowa City, Iowa, that she would close migrant detention facilities run by private contractors working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“If you were president, would you commit to closing immigrant detention centers?” a voter asked Harris.
Of course, from day one … There’s a detention center in Homestead, Florida that you pay for. It’s a private, for-profit detention center. It was and still is, housing 2,700 kids, funded by American taxpayer money. When I got there, we tried to go in, but they wouldn’t let me in. I walked down the street and climbed the ladder to see what was going on inside, and I saw kids lined up by gender and being taken into a barn. [Emphasis added]
and Let’s be clear about these private detention facilities. In other words, their business model is to profit from the incarceration of other people, in this case children. On day one, shut them down. [Emphasis added]
The left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Estimation Nearly nine in 10 illegal immigrants in DHS custody are held in private detention facilities, a statistic that suggests Harris’ plan would result in the release of roughly 90 percent of illegal immigrants currently in DHS custody.
Harris also said that as president she would focus on “closing private detention facilities” and working to pass a “path to citizenship,” a euphemism for amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Laura Reese, an Iowa native and director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center on Border Security and Immigration, told Breitbart News that “migrant detention is a necessary measure to protect public safety, prevent escape and ensure removal if ordered by an immigration judge.”
“New President Kamala Harris, the self-described ‘tough on borders and tough on crime’ former Attorney General of California, knows this, but she needs to get the message across to current Vice President Kamala Harris and 2019 Kamala Harris, who are both in this video,” Reese said. “This will be an opportunity for the left to censor this inconvenient video.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
