VP Harris’ Prior Comments On ICE Come Back To Haunt Her

As a U.S. senator from California, Vice President Kamala Harris once likened agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Ku Klux Klan during a 2018 Senate hearing, sparking significant backlash from a senior ICE official and outrage from Republicans.

Many point out that President Joe Biden appointed Harris as the “Border Czar” in March 2021, shortly after they both took office in the “Biden-Harris administration.” A video clip of Harris’s 2018 remarks has resurfaced on social media, especially in the wake of Biden’s decision on Sunday to step aside from his reelection bid and endorse Harris as the Democratic nominee.

“Democrat Senator Kamala Harris compares ICE to the KKK and appears to suggest that they are a terrorist group during a Senate hearing to consider Ronald Vitiello for ICE director. By the end of fiscal year 2016, 51% of ICE agents were Hispanic or Latino,” noted Ryan Saavedra, a senior reporter for the Daily Wire, in a post on the X platform, along with a clip of the exchange.

WATCH:

“Are you aware of the perception that many have regarding how ICE uses its power and discretion in enforcing laws? Do you see any parallels?” Harris asked Vitiello.

Vitiello responded firmly, “I do not see any parallels” between ICE and the white supremacist KKK.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, illegal immigration has hit record levels, making it one of the top issues in the 2024 election cycle.

Within an hour of Biden’s announcement to withdraw from the race, the Republican National Committee shared a 2018 clip of Harris discussing the possibility of abolishing ICE, reinforcing her alignment with the progressive left's stance on the agency’s role.

“I think we need to seriously reconsider ICE, its role, how it’s being administered, and the work it is doing,” Harris told MSNBC. “We probably need to start from scratch.”

A memo obtained by Fox News from the National Republican Senatorial Committee further amplified her comments, noting her previous support for making illegal border crossings less of a criminal offense. The memo also referred to her as the “border czar” and highlighted her backing of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposals for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. “Candidates should not hesitate to strongly link their opponents to Kamala Harris’ extreme agenda,” the memo urged.

Former acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf tied Harris’s record directly to the broader Biden administration's policies.

“It's worth remembering that VP Harris has only visited the border once in the last 3.5 years. The Biden-Harris administration does not take border security seriously, and their policies have left the American public more vulnerable,” Wolf commented in an X post.

During her failed 2020 presidential campaign, Harris pledged to “end all government contracts with private prisons” used for ICE enforcement.

Numbers USA, a group advocating for lower immigration levels, had previously given Harris an F- grade for her stance on immigration issues during her time as a California senator.

“Kamala Harris has been at the forefront of dismantling immigration enforcement. From her first day in office, she worked to abolish ICE,” said RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement and a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, in an interview with Fox News.

“Everything in Harris’s record demonstrates her alignment with the far left’s open-borders agenda. In November, Americans will face a clear choice: mass deportation or mass release of illegal immigrants and dangerous criminals into U.S. communities,” he added.