Kamala Harris previously compared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and called former President Donald J. Trump‘s wall on the southern border a “vanity project.” The re-emergence of Harris’s remarks comes as she faces increasing scrutiny as the Democratic Party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee following 81-year-old Joe Biden’s exit from the race on July 21.
ICE AND THE KLAN.
In a 2018 Senate hearing, then-Senator Harris likened ICE to the KKK. Harris pressed Ronald Vitiello—the then-acting director of ICE—regarding the history of the KKK and its targeting of individuals based on their race. “Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the laws? And do you see any parallels?” Harris asked Vitiello, suggesting the governmental agency was engaged in activities similar to that of the KKK.
Outraged, Vitiello pushed back, asking Harris if she was putting ICE in the same category as the KKK. The then-California Senator doubled down, asking the acting ICE director again if he was aware that some saw the agency as behaving the same way as the KKK, suggesting “there might need to be some work done to correct [that] perception.”
FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris says there is a “perception” of ICE being similar to the KKK in 2018 Senate hearing
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 26, 2024
TRUMP’S BORDER WALL.
Several years later, during the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential primary, Harris criticized Trump’s border wall, describing it as a “vanity project” and claiming that illegal immigration did not constitute an emergency. Furthermore, during her presidential campaign, she argued against treating illegal immigrants as criminals.
She stated, regarding Trump‘s border policies, “We don’t need to build a wall. This is a crisis of [Trump’s] own making,” and vowed not to support funding for the wall.
2019: Kamala Harris calls the border wall a “vanity project” because “by definition,” illegal immigration is “not an emergency.”
This individual is now the “Border Czar.” pic.twitter.com/0G8gJZqeko
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 26, 2024
BIDEN’S BORDER CZAR.
Despite such stances, Biden assigned Harris the task of addressing the border crisis and its “root causes” shortly after his inauguration in 2021, becoming the government’s border czar, despite corporate media attempts to claim she did not.
During her tenure as border czar, Harris refused to meet with Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens during his two years in office.
Former Border Patrol leader Chris Clem slammed Harris’s disastrous handling of the border last week, saying, “You own this. You can’t say, ‘It’s not my responsibility.'” Clem referred to the border situation as “disastrous.”
Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, also heavily criticized Harris, saying she refused to implement any policies needed to end the border crisis.
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd: “Kamala Harris knows what she needs to do…I gave her all of the policies she needed and she refused to implement them. She does not care about you…[Trump] does. This is the man for the presidency.” pic.twitter.com/vmA89txavs
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) July 24, 2024