Kamala Harris, then California's attorney general, stood up to the Obama administration when she helped a man without legal immigration status become the first man in the country to be admitted to the bar.
More than a decade ago, Harris played a key role in supporting the legal fight for undocumented immigrants to gain admission to the bar. According to The Sacramento Bee reported that the revelations about Harris' past activities further highlight how she has changed course on immigration since winning her party's nomination to be the next US president. (Related: In just 48 hours, ICE arrests four illegal immigrants on sex charges hiding out in elite vacation spot)
Sergio Garcia, a Mexican national who was 35 years old at the time and living in the United States illegally, was fighting a legal battle to become a lawyer in 2012. According to Harris, who was the state's top prosecutor at the time, filed an amicus brief in support of Garcia's appointment as attorney, according to the Mercury News.
“There is no law or policy that would prohibit this Court from admitting Mr. Garcia to the State Bar,” her office wrote at the time. “Indeed, admitting Mr. Garcia to the State Bar would be consistent with state and federal policies that encourage community service among both legal and undocumented immigrants.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (second from left) tours the El Paso Border Patrol Station in El Paso, Texas, June 25, 2021. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
The California Attorney General at the time even sent lawyers from his own firm to help Garcia argue his case before the state Supreme Court.
Harris' legal support put her at odds with the Obama administration, which argued that allowing undocumented immigrants to practice law in California violates federal immigration law.
“In the United States' view, (federal law) prohibits this Court from issuing law licenses to illegal aliens,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief filed with the California Supreme Court. According to Mercury News.
Garcia ultimately won his legal battle when the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor, according to the Sacramento Bee. According to Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law and one of the lawyers who represented Garcia before the California Bar, Harris' efforts “made the difference” in the court victory.
“When the state's top law enforcement official says this is legal, this is permissible, this is possible, the California Supreme Court listens,” Johnson told the Sacramento Bee. “She could have ducked and hidden and tried to avoid the political controversy.”
“But she sided with the California Bar and with Sergio Garcia, so I respect her for that,” he continued.
About two years after Harris began supporting Garcia's work, she invited him into her office to present him with the medal for bravery, according to the Sacramento Bee.
This isn't the first time Harris has directly supported undocumented immigrants in California. As San Francisco's attorney general, she led a jobs program known as “Back on Track,” which kept criminals out of prison and provided job training, but inadvertently included undocumented immigrants in the program.
Harris argued that including illegal immigrants in “Back on Track” was a “flawed design” after it emerged that a criminal illegal immigrant who tried to hit a woman with his car avoided prison after being selected for the program. Because I said The incident marked her “red pill” moment, changing her from a self-described liberal to a Republican.
As a senator from California, Harris once likened Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Ku Klux Klan during her confirmation hearing, and in a June 2018 media interview suggested the agency should be rebuilt “from the ground up.”
Harris has previously called President Donald Trump's border wall “un-American” and a “stupid waste of money.” In 2019, she pledged to support taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery for undocumented immigrants held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody facilities, and became a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Raised hand When asked if he supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings.
But as a presidential candidate, Trump has since taken a tougher stance on immigration, saying in his first interview that people who cross the border illegally should be “punished” and running campaign ads suggesting he would take a tough stance on border security.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
As an independent, nonpartisan news service, all content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation is available free of charge to any legitimate news publisher with a large readership. All republished articles must include our logo, reporter byline, and affiliation with the DCNF. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
