Posted on September 10, 2024

Harris Told ACLU in 2019 She Supports Cuts to ICE Funding and Providing Gender Transition Surgery to Detained Migrants

Andrew Kaczynski, CNN, September 9, 2024

As Kamala Harris pivots to the political center in her campaign for president, a 2019 questionnaire from a leading civil rights organization spotlights her past support for left-wing causes such as taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

In an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire then-Sen. Harris filled out as a candidate for president in 2020, she also expressed support for decriminalizing federal drug possession for personal use, and for sweeping reductions to Immigration and Custom Enforcement operations, including drastic cuts in ICE funding and an open-ended pledge to “end” immigration detention.

The questionnaire has received scant media attention and a spokesperson for the ACLU claimed it had remained live from 2019.

But the ACLU’s website upload and page source indicate the questionnaire was reposted last month after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. CNN was unable to find questionnaires filled out by other candidates from the 2020 campaign that the ACLU had reposted.

Harris has acknowledged that some of her stances have evolved over time but that she holds core beliefs that remain unshakable: “My values have not changed,” she said in an interview with CNN last month.

The ACLU questionnaire, which was sent  to all Democratic and Republican candidates during the 2020 presidential campaign, provides a clear record of Harris’ progressive stances. Some candidates did not respond to the questionnaire, including Joe Biden.  The ACLU later ran radio ads attacking Biden for not answering.

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The Harris campaign did not answer questions from CNN on whether she continued to support these positions and instead provided a statement attributable only to an unnamed “Harris campaign advisor” saying, “The Vice President’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris Administration.”

They declined to elaborate on what her positions were.

They also provided a comment attributed to a Harris campaign spokesperson saying, “As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.”

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Harris’ starkest contrast to her current positions might be her new tough immigration rhetoric versus what she told the ACLU.

When asked about criminal justice reform on the questionnaire, she wrote she would end immigration detention facilities (along with private prisons). Harris also said she supported decreasing funding for ICE.

“Our immigrant detention system is out of control, and I believe we must end the unfair incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children,” Harris wrote. “I was one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.”

Harris appears to be citing her efforts in 2017 to oppose increased ICE funding under Trump.

Harris wrote that in 2018 she had introduced the Detention Oversight, Not Expansion (DONE) Act to, “increase oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, slash detention by at least 50%, and halt funding for the construction or expansion of new facilities.”

Harris also pledged to end the use of ICE detainers – requests by ICE to local or state law enforcement to hold an individual up to 48 hours beyond their release time so ICE can take them into custody for possible deportation.

During the Trump administration, ICE aggressively targeted undocumented immigrants, including asylum seekers, for detention and deportation. Under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, ICE expanded its use of detention centers, conducted more workplace raids and increased arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal records.

The Biden-Harris administration continued to issue detainer requests, but the rate fell sharply in the months after the January 2021 inauguration, according to data from Syracuse University.

Harris also noted that as California attorney general, she had issued guidance saying local law enforcement would not have to comply with such detainers.

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