Kamala Harris' Dark History Backing Illegal Immigration Puts Her to Biden & Obama's Left

Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee supports decriminalizing illegal immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens

Vice President Kamala Harris—the Democratic Party’s new presumptive presidential nominee—holds positions on immigration to the left of Biden and former President Barrack Obama. Her view on immigration policy reveals a false and dangerous philosophical view of the U.S. and immigration’s role in its history and development.

From her time as San Francisco District Attorney in the early 2000s to her second run for the presidency in 2024, Harris has held that illegal border crossings should be decriminalized. She has also backed sanctuary cities, opposed deporting illegal aliens, supported amnesty for millions, and lumped immigrants in with U.S. citizen minorities.

Patriotism Means Opening the Floodgates?

Despite her exposure to left-wing radicalism as a child, Harris does not demonize the U.S. as many on the Left do. In her autobiography The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, she expresses gratitude to the country in which her parents and she found success.

Asked in 2008 what a Harris presidency would look like she said she would tap the “incredible talent pool” in both inner cities and rural areas.

“At the end of 8 years,” she predicted, “I believe that we all would decide proudly that we are all, as Americans, patriots. And at the end of my 8 years, I promise you everyone will be wearing an American flag on their lapel.” 

Her definition of patriotism, however, differentiates her from most Americans and reveals the leftist academic and bureaucratic worldview that developed her career.

She defines a patriot twofold: as “someone who defends their country whatever it does” and “who believes that we are, and we can be, a real democracy in a place that is all about equality.”

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, she stated: “A democracy, I believe, is defined and symbolized by many things, including a process that is fair and allows everyone to be heard” and “an environment that allows everyone’s experience to be recognized.” She added that “it is also “defined by the existence of a constitution, and a love of that constitution, and an adherence to the principles of that constitution.”

On the surface, one would think her views unextreme and patriotic. Her belief in a constitution, however, centers on the document’s principles rather than its text. This creates an endlessly evolving interpretation of the rule of law based on everyone’s lived experience and the furtherance of equality. Additional statements make clear that she believes in a nebulous form of democracy by coalition.

During a speech to Unidos US—a left-wing Hispanic political organization that supports illegal immigration—she said, “The power of Unidos is the power of the coalition, recognizing that diversity in our nation is not a weakness or an afterthought but instead our greatest strength.”

Pointing to the podium, she added: “Written on this seal, on the front of this podium is ‘E Pluribus Unum’—out of many one. That is who we are, and it is a founding principle of our nation. So, when we together fight in coalition for the freedom, rights, and justice of all people, that is an act of patriotism.”

The national motto, however, has nothing to do with ethnic, racial, or linguistic diversity. The Founders recommended it on July 4, 1776. “When deciding to fight for our freedom, the colonists decided that they would be more powerful if all of the colonies fought together,” states the Smithsonian Institution. “Out of 13 colonies came one nation.”

Her view that patriotism entails “fighting for the freedom, rights, and justice for all people” informs her view of immigration. By this definition, an American patriot must support anyone from anywhere coming to the U.S. if that person lacks the freedom, rights, and justice enjoyed by Americans.

(RELATED: The Growing Red Wave Against Non-Citizen Voting)

Decriminalizing Illegal Immigration

Harris wants to make illegal immigration a mere civil offense but does not want to apply the penalty that a civil offense in immigration carries.

As San Francisco District Attorney, she developed a reputation for defending illegal aliens. Her office put out a statement that saying, “We are a sanctuary city, a city of refuge, and we always will be.”

In 2007, she told a local ABC affiliate, “Your immigrant status no matter what it is does not, in our mind’s eye, designate you as a criminal.”

She even allowed illegal aliens to participate in San Francisco County’s diversion program, called Back on Track, which offered them job training in place of jail time for jobs that they could not legally work. She discontinued the policy only after the Los Angeles Times reported that an illegal alien drug dealer in the program stole a purse from a woman, jumped in her car, and ran the woman over. 

In response to criticism that she’d been too hard on illegal aliens as D.A., Harris spokesman Ian Sams doubled down on her support of “San Francisco’s commitment” to protecting illegal aliens

As California Attorney General, during the Obama administration, she instructed California sheriffs not to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In later interviews with MSNBC as a 2020 presidential candidate, she characterized the Obama administration’s immigration policies as out of step with her policies as California A.G., stating: “I do not condone and support any policy that is about picking up, arresting, and detaining undocumented immigrants who have not committed a crime.”

She tweeted on Nov. 7, 2016: “The term “illegal alien” is offensive and we must stop treating undocumented workers as criminals in this country.”

As a Senator, she tweeted on April 21, 2017: “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” This prompted the Washington Post to grant her ‘two pinocchios’ because she did not distinguish between those who commit the civil offense of overstaying their visas and those who criminally trespass by crossing the border illegally.

It appears Harris was describing illegal immigration as what she thought it should be, “unburdened by what it has been.”

Illegal border crossings “should be a civil enforcement issue, but not a criminal enforcement issue,” she later clarified on the View during her presidential run in July 2019.

Harris told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, in 2018, that “we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE” and “probably think about starting from scratch.”

She even compared perceptions of ICE to perceptions of the Ku Klux Klan during a 2018 Senate hearing, while questioning Ronald Vitiello, Trump’s nominee to lead ICE.

Even if a President Harris brought the classification of illegal border crossings down to the level of visa overstays, the penalty for overstaying one’s visa is deportation and banishment from the U.S. for 3 or 10 years, depending on the length of one’s overstay.

During the 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, she was asked if an immigrant should be deported if their only offense is being undocumented. She responded, “No, they should not be deported.”

(RELATED: End the Open Borders Carnage That Murdered Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, & Jocelyn Nungaray—Now)

Amnesty for Millions

“There is no path for undocumented immigrants toward citizenship, there is no path,” complained Harris in a 2019 town hall. “So, it is irresponsible to not come up with a plan.” 

On her 2020 presidential campaign website, she stated: “As president, Kamala will fight to pass immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people living in our communities and contributing to our economy.”

In an interview with Univision on Jan. 12, 2021, Harris promised to support giving green cards to so-called “Dreamers,” recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and those with Temporary Protected Status. She also promised to reduce the time for illegal aliens to earn citizenship to 8 years from previous proposals of 13 years.

Immediately after taking office, the Biden-Harris administration sent the U.S. Citizenship Act to Congress, which would grant nearly all illegal aliens amnesty. Although it failed, Harris supported the similar American Dream and Promise Act, which passed the House of Representatives in March 2021 but failed in the Senate.

Harris refused to defend Biden’s proposal to close the border if illegal crossings reached a certain threshold in a June 2024 interview with Univision. She instead pivoted to her support for amnesty, bragging: “The first bill that we offered right after we took office, right after inauguration, was a proposal to create a pathway for citizenship.”

(RELATED: Meet the $2 Billion Coalition that Wants Non-Citizen Voting in Our Elections)

Making Mass Migration Easier

Harris’ view on immigration’s role in the creation and maintenance of the American nation drives her immigration policies.

She told an MSNBC town hall in 2019: “This is a nation founded by immigrants” and that unless your ancestors were kidnapped and brought over on slave ships or “unless you are Native American, your people are immigrants.”

This presents two problems for Harris as a potential president.

Firstly, it’s historically inaccurate to consider British colonists who founded the U.S. as immigrants. Their journey from Great Britain to the American colonies mirrored a contemporary American’s move from California to the U.S. territory of Guam.

Secondly, her “your people” comment shows that she does not view Americans as one people, but a collection of “coalitions” as she called it in her speech to Unidos US.

“We have always presented ourselves as a nation of strength, with strong arms, that when people are fleeing harm, we will embrace them,” she added to the MSNBC audience

This is pure mythology. No historian, liberal or conservative, claims that the U.S. has universally embraced anyone who wanted to flee to it. From its foundation, the U.S. has always had limits on immigration. Those limits expanded and contracted over time based on the economic, social, and geopolitical needs of the country.

Her speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention reveals her view of immigrants within the body politic of America. “Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American Dream belongs to some of us but not all of us,” she said.

At first, this sounds like classic Democratic accusations of racism and bigotry. The Democratic speaker would normally follow with a laundry list of minorities within the American citizenry that Republicans allegedly deem unworthy of the American Dream. But within the list, Harris adds: “It belongs to the immigrants, young and old, who come to this country in search of a better life.”

This is false, and it represents an incompatible worldview with Americans who believe theirs is a real nation of real citizens and that they hold priority by birth or naturalization over all immigrants—especially those who come illegally.

Harris, however, does not differentiate between immigrants—legal or illegal—and birthright citizens like herself.

On the campaign trail, in 2019, referring to DACA recipients, she said, “These young people are just as American as I am, and they deserve a president who will fight for them from day one.”

As Vice President, in 2021, when Harris got around to visiting the border as Biden’s point person on the crisis, she made clear that the administration aimed not to curb mass migration, but to make it less “irregular.”

Harris remains more radical on immigration than Obama and Biden. Obama allowed ICE to do its job some of the time. Biden, at least, has tried to press the brakes on the open border when public opinion soured. As president, Harris would expand the policies of the Biden administration. She supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings, providing mass amnesty to illegal aliens, and throwing open the borders to anyone who wants to come—all of which fits nicely within her view of patriotism and democracy.

In 2020, she said she was running for president partly to fight for an America where we treat attacks on immigrant rights “as attacks on our country itself.” 

(READ MORE: Blame “Border Czar” Kamala Harris for the Border Debacle)

Jacob Grandstaff is a freelance writer in Tennessee. He graduated from the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.