In her highly anticipated first interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris did a 180-degree turn on prosecuting illegal border crossings.
CNN host Dana Bash asked Harris on Thursday whether she still believes illegal border crossings should be prosecuted, something she indicated she was opposed to during the 2019 presidential campaign.
“I believe there should be consequences,” Harris told Bash. “We have laws that must be followed and enforced to deal with people who cross our border illegally. … And let me be clear: I'm the only person in this race who has prosecuted international criminal organizations involved in gun, drug and human trafficking. I'm the only person in this race who has enforced our laws as an attorney general of a border state. And as president, I intend to enforce our laws.”
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An unaccompanied minor walks toward a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle after crossing the border from Mexico, May 9, 2023, in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Harris' comments Thursday were in contrast to what she has said and done in the past regarding illegal immigration, particularly illegal border crossings.
Harris has suggested during nationally televised debates that she would not prosecute people who cross the border illegally, and in 2015 she told the San Francisco Chronicle that “illegal immigrants are not criminals,” a position she has also posted on social media. She also reiterated her position during a 2019 spat with Meghan, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), on “The View.”
“I would not make this a crime punishable by prison,” she said. “This should be a civil enforcement issue, not a criminal enforcement issue.”
As a U.S. Senator, Harris Cut funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And as California's Attorney General, she instructed local law enforcement agencies not to comply with ICE's requests to detain people who have committed crimes and crossed the border illegally until they could be taken into custody to begin deportation proceedings.
Harris also compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.
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Fox News Digital spoke to critics who say Harris' comments are “disingenuous” and “only for election purposes.” (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital spoke to two conservative immigration experts who said her comments were “disingenuous” and only “campaign-oriented.”
“If he cares about enforcing our border laws, he would be part of and lead an administration that fully prosecutes crimes related to illegal border crossings,” said Gene Hamilton, director of America First Legal, a right-wing legal group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
“The Department of Justice's prosecutions of border crimes are at a rock bottom level, even lower than they were under the Obama administration, and this is significant.”
Hamilton, who served as counsel to the attorney general at the Justice Department under former President Trump, argued that a key measure of how serious the administration is about border security is the number of illegal crossers compared to the number of deportations.
Hamilton said that according to Justice Department data, there were 2.4 million illegal border crossings last year.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has prosecuted approximately 20,000 of these violations.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Hamilton argued, noting that while there were fewer illegal border crossings in 2019 under the Trump administration than there will be in 2023, the Trump administration still prosecuted more than five times as many illegal border crossers in 2023 as the Biden-Harris administration.
“As she said in her interview last night, her values haven't changed. She's said that many times,” said Laura Reese, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center on Border Security and Immigration. “She's saying to her supporters, 'Look, don't worry about what the campaign is saying right now. We just have to say it to get elected, but my values haven't changed.'”
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After completely reversing her far-left stance in 2019, Vice President Kamala Harris raised some eyebrows when she told CNN's Dana Bash that her “values haven't changed.” (Screenshot/CNN)
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Reese accused the Biden-Harris administration of “gaslighting” the American people, but denied that Harris was appointed border official and argued that the Harris team is “taking things to another level” by pretending that Harris doesn't have the power and can't implement tougher measures at the border.
“She is in a position of power right now. If she really believed that, she would be doing that now, which she isn't. But to pretend that she's not in power right now, that she's not in office, is a more sophisticated form of gaslighting,” Reese said. “I think this is just for election purposes.”
Hamilton echoed that statement, calling Harris' comments on Thursday “disingenuous.”
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Fox News Digital reached out multiple times to the Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response.
