Following Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top of the Democrat ticket, her glaring failures on the border crisis as President Biden’s “border czar” have been thrust back into the spotlight. But the vice president’s record of radicalism on immigration extends far beyond the White House and back to her early days as San Francisco District Attorney.
Harris was San Francisco’s top cop from 2004 to 2011, and then California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017 before moving to the Senate. During that time, she developed a reputation for soft-on-crime policies – particularly when it came to enforcing federal immigration laws.
Harris was notably an avid proponent of so-called “sanctuary cities.” She once described San Francisco as “a sanctuary city, a city of refuge,” further claiming that “we always will be.”
A sanctuary city, broadly speaking, is a municipality whose political leaders openly refuse to comply with federal immigration laws and authorities. In practice, this can amount to anything from denying federal authorities access to crime statistics and data to refusing to deport illegal immigrants and, in some cases, even refusing to prosecute illegal immigrants found guilty of “low-level” crimes.
Harris has asserted throughout her career that “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” San Francisco, under her prosecutorial leadership, consistently refused to refer illegal immigrants accused of crimes to federal authorities specifically to protect them from deportation.
In so doing, Harris hobbled the federal government’s ability to identify and track known criminals, gang leaders, murderers, rapists, and cartel members hiding in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintains lists of known criminals who have escaped justice in Central and South America by fleeing north. By failing to relay this information to authorities, Harris ensured that it would be significantly more difficult to identify these criminals and bring them to justice.
A recent New York Post expose detailed just a few of the horrific acts committed by violent criminals who benefitted from Harris’s policies as San Francisco DA. One of the most notorious was Edwin Ramos, an illegal alien from El Salvador who committed a grisly triple murder in 2008.
Before killing three people, Ramos had been arrested multiple times for gang-related assaults. But Harris’s policy of not questioning the immigration status of juveniles meant he was never reported to federal immigration authorities. In the national outrage that followed the story, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom changed that policy.
Notably, however, Harris still refused to seek the death penalty against Ramos.
Harris’s policies also allowed Rony Aguilera, an illegal alien from Honduras, to walk free after being found guilty of assault. A year later, Aguilera was involved in a gruesome gang murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Harris also allowed illegal aliens convicted of drug crimes to enter San Francisco’s “Back on Track” program, which provided job training and expunged criminal records. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, in 2008 DA Harris knowingly let roughly half a dozen illegal immigrants charged as first-time drug offenders “clear their records by going through a jobs training program.”
Harris defended this at the time by claiming that these individuals were unaware that they were illegal when they entered the program, and so it would be unfair to not allow them to participate or to report them to federal authorities. However, she still “let several graduates go free even after learning of their status.” When questioned why, she stated, “Enforcing federal immigration law is not the job of local authorities.”
One of the program’s participants was Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal immigrant from Honduras. While he was in the program, Izaguirre robbed San Francisco resident Amanda Kiefer by stealing her purse. He then jumped into his car and tried to kill Kiefer by running her down. Though she survived, she suffered significant trauma, including a skull fracture. When told of the incident, Harris dismissed it as a “huge kind of pimple” on an otherwise supposedly good program.
With four months to go until Election Day, these could be just the start of the shocking revelations about Harris’s radical tenure in California. Last week, America First Legal announced seven separate investigations into Harris’s record as attorney general. Most notably, they plan to investigate her “failure to enforce federal immigration laws,” which could become a major problem for Harris’s nascent presidential campaign as voters continue to rank the border crisis among their top concerns.
Harris’s DA record is littered with instances of her picking and choosing which laws to enforce. By refusing to work with federal authorities on tracking illegal aliens, she knowingly made San Francisco less safe. Should she win in November, Americans can only expect more of the chaos and tragedy they’ve already seen over the past four years.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
Only immigration extremism? Giggles is so far left she makes Bernie Sanders look like a conservative. Any honest review of Kamala’s “public service” performance record and her preferred policies both from the past and for the future show her clearly as the anti-American, anti-freedom, hard core Communist that she is.
Why wait so long to investigate VP Harris dismal record as DA in San Fran and California? This travesty should have brought up long ago. Again, her dismal record as VP and being ignorant of the law should have already landed an impeachment indictment against her. Where are the Federal Marshals? Oh yes, in bed with the rest of DOJ sleeping, allowing criminals to do as they please. THIS IS A MESS THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED THIS NOVEMBER. Let’s not continue to vote in crooks and imbeciles to public office.
Harris says that “undocumented illegal is not a criminal” huh? Isn’t it criminal to enter a country illegally? Oh wait, these people are future Democrats so it’s alright!
Kackler was promoted by her powerful (married) boyfriend, Willie Brown. He appointed her to a couple of no-show jobs on different boards and when he needed to get the heat off some of his cronies, had her run for DA. She immediately dropped the investigation of Brown’s pals AND the investigation of pedophile priests. She wouldn’t even provide information to victims when they filed a civil suit. So much for helping “the people.”
Respect for the rule of law helps keep our society civil and our residents safe. Harris and other socialists foment chaos in the streets and in the courts. Why? I don’t know, but it does permit the crazy anarchists to protest and criminals to commit their heinous crimes without impunity.
It’s all part of the deliberate breakdown of our society, where the elites have all the power and all the goodies while the rest of us battle it out for the scraps. Harris has stated, after all, that “we need to reduce our population”.
Nothing this cackling windbag is doing, isn’t doing, has done, or isn’t doing is “in the spotlight” because the press is not covering it therefore few will remember or know. All their viewers hear about is how “weird” Trump & Vance is! But then the average Democrat voter won’t care about her record, only the (D) after her name!
Dems, RINOs, Never Trumpers seeded this Years ago
This is but one issue with her. However the democrat plan is only to get close enough to make sure the cheat can be obfuscated.
I am all for sending her and her squad to a socialist or communist country, (their choice). But that will be the LAST free choice they have! Just leave, don’t ruin things for everyone else!!
I am a resident of TX and we are being over run with illegal immigrants. We need the border CLOSED, Kam-mule-ah!!!
She is acting as a:
“Criminal “‘ !!!
Look up the word meaning >
Action speaks LOUDER than- ( Words)!!!!!!!
Obviously, Harris is continuing the Biden practice of unconditionally allowing illegal immigrants into our US to “remake” the voting majority in favor of her “Democrat” party.
This is an illegal act that neither Biden nor Harris EVER had the right to sponsor or engage in… and EVERY LEGITIMATE CITIZEN has both the right and the obligation to oppose.
Failing to oppose this criminal “leadership” and their illegal immigration plans will drain our financial resources and, ultimately, damage our economy to an extent that we will not be able to recover from.
She is only one of many .Product of what our schools became. This is a different specie of American Result of evolution that started some 50 years ago. The old is replaced by a completely different specimen.
Under Kameltoe we will be fodder for every murderer, rapist, thief, robber, kidnapper, because she will eliminate the police. A way to depopulate the world. She is for less population. That way we will have cleaner environment and living standard. Her words not mine. Watch out for people bringing false promises. She really believes she is doing good or did good as DA. Nothing is ever that black and white. She doesn’t see it let us hope the voters see her for what she is a dictator with no heart for anyone but herself.
This women Kamala Harris is so WEIRD? lol lol lol