Harris frustrates her left wing with reversals on immigration policy

Left-wing groups are concerned that Harris' newfound appreciation for border security policies she once criticized as “un-American” will only advance a “MAGA anti-immigration agenda,” according to one Axios Report.

When she accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination last month, Harris declared her support for a bipartisan border deal that stalled in the Senate earlier this year.

“As president, I will reintroduce the bipartisan border security bill,” she said. “I will sign it and sign it into law.”

The bill was introduced by Senator James Lankford (Republican, Oklahoma) and signed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat, New York). It would have provided $650 million for the construction of the border wall, a measure that Harris had previously strongly opposed.

Left-leaning immigration groups and liberals hope that Harris' new stance on the border wall is merely an electoral tactic to win over moderate voters concerned about border security.

They remain strongly opposed to the bill they now support.

The bill “should not be considered in the Senate or passed under any current or future administration,” Gina Cummings of Oxfam America told the news agency.

The policy director of the International Refugee Assistance Project fears that the bill would “legalize anti-immigrant policies rather than reform or modernize America's severely outdated immigration system.”

“If you take out the Ukraine aid that was originally part of the compromise, this is just a Republican bill,” warned Kerri Talbot, executive director of the Immigration Hub.

Other liberals called their enthusiasm for the bipartisan bill, which also includes funding for a border wall, “harmful.”

Harris once did not believe in funding the construction of the border wall herself. In 2018, she voted against a bipartisan bill that would have provided protection to illegal immigrants because it included funding for the wall.

During her brief presidential bid in 2020, Harris said she would “not vote for a wall under any circumstances.”

After calling former President Donald Trump's border wall ambitions a “medieval prestige project” in 2019, Harris derided “Trump's border wall” the following year, calling it a “complete waste of taxpayer money.”

During her campaign against Trump in 2024, Harris has also changed her mind on decriminalizing border crossings.

After announcing her candidacy for the White House in July, Harris said she believes “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.”

“There must be consequences,” she said at the end of August.

Her words were a departure from a speech she gave on the Senate floor in 2017, when she said, “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.”

Harris made a similar ruling in 2020 when she promised to decriminalize illegal border crossings if she won the election.

When Harris was asked why her policy positions on various issues, including the border, had changed during her first debate with Trump last month, she dodged the question.

“My values ​​haven’t changed,” she said.

Weeks earlier, Harris had told her supporters at the Democratic Party Convention: “I know how important security and protection are, especially at our border.”

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While she has campaigned tirelessly for an “earned path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants for years, Harris has offered few details about her immigration agenda should she win election in November.

Even the policy page on her campaign website provides few details about the vice president's border plan.