The claim: Vice President Kamala Harris suggested during Tuesday night's presidential debate that former President Donald Trump singlehandedly killed an expansion immigration bill introduced by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ind. and Arizona).
Verdict: Mostly false. Trump opposed the bill from the start, and Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate alike vehemently opposed the bill.
“The United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members of the Senate, have introduced a border security bill, which I supported,” Harris said.
“You know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump called and told some people in Congress, 'Snatch this bill,'” Harris said.
Harris' account of what happened with the bill is largely fiction.
In early January, the Immigrant Accountability Project helped leak details of the bill to the American public, noting that the bill would increase levels of legal immigration while expediting work authorization for immigrants released into the U.S., and most infamously, allowing tens of thousands of migrants to cross the border each week before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could implement any border controls.
President Trump urged Republicans to oppose the bill because of its provisions, but Republicans in the House and Senate had already begun to oppose it when details of the bill were leaked, as had Democrats in the House and Senate, who began to oppose it because it did not include amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The most prominent are Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Opposed The bill is also sponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), LaFonza Butler (D-Calif.), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), as well as Senator Sinema.
“I will not vote for the bill that goes before the Senate this week because it contains provisions that are antithetical to the shared values of the American people. These provisions will not make the American people safer,” Booker said. said in May, before the bill was defeated.
In early February, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said it opposed the bill because it lacked amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“From what I've read so far, the deal the Senate has negotiated to address our border challenges doesn't meet current circumstances,” Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-Calif.), the caucus' chairwoman, said at the time.
Caucus chair Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said it was unacceptable that the bill did not include amnesty for “all DREAMers.”
“…This is not real reform,” Garcia said. “Real reform would include creating a path to citizenship for all Dreamers. With this bill, Dreamers have been betrayed by the Senate. The American people have spoken clearly: Dreamers must stay.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
