In picking Sen. Kamala Harris of California to complete his ticket, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has made two groups very happy -- Wall St. and Silicon Valley. If her voting record on immigration is any indication, Sen. Harris will aggressively advocate for the Biden-Sanders 'Unity Plan' -- a list of policy recommendations that would increase legal immigration while all but eliminating immigration enforcement. That's good news for Big Business and bad news for American workers and their wages.
Sen. Harris has only been in the Senate for three and a half years, but she's already taken close to 50 actions on immigration and has yet to earn a single positive point on our Immigration Reduction Grade Cards.
The most indicative actions of her true views on immigration came in February of 2018 when the Senate voted on three separate DACA amnesty proposals. Harris was one of only three Democrats to vote against a bipartisan proposal crafted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that was labelled by the mainstream media as the "centrist" measure. She was also the only Democratic presidential hopeful to vote against the proposal.
Defending her 'no' vote, Harris said:
"I recognize that my colleagues faced the impossible challenge of crafting a bill that could meet the White House's unreasonable and ever-shifting demands. But regrettably this bill is simply not the answer."
A LEADING ADVOCATE FOR SILICON VALLEY
The tech titans in Silicon Valley have found a good friend in Sen. Harris who has deep ties to the San Francisco Bay area. Born in Oakland, Sen. Harris' career took off when she was elected District Attorney in San Francisco, so her ties to the tech industry come as no surprise.
During the current Congressional session, she's a cosponsor of Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) S. 1744, the Keep STEM Talent Act, that would exempt any foreign student who earns an advanced degree in a STEM major and has an offer of employment from annual numerical limits. The legislation would result in more than 50,000 additional foreign STEM workers a year who would compete directly against U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who graduate from college with degrees in STEM.
Sen. Harris is also the lead Democratic sponsor of S. 386, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The bill would lift the per-country caps on employment visas, essentially giving tech workers from India a monopoly on the visas. The result would be more worker competition for American tech workers who haven't seen a pay increase in more than a decade and who often face age discrimination in the workplace.
Her support of legislation lobbied heavily by Silicon Valley is consistent with the Biden-Sanders Unity Plan which calls for exempting all foreign nationals with a PhD in STEM from any visa limits.
AMNESTY FOR ALL -- EVEN FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T HERE!
Sen. Harris' position on amnesty doesn't separate her from the other potential VP picks who were under consideration by the Biden campaign. All the finalists, including former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Karen Bass, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth are all vocal supporters of a mass amnesty.
As a candidate for President, Sen. Harris' position was:
As president, Kamala will fight to pass immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people living in our communities and contributing to our economy. While she wages that fight, she will immediately reinstate DACA and implement DAPA to protect DREAMers and their parents from deportation. She will also restore and expand Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who would face war or catastrophe if forced to return home.
But what does separate her from some of the other VP hopefuls has been her full support for the de facto amnesty program "Temporary" Protected Status (TPS) -- even for foreign nationals who aren't in the country. She's a cosponsor of S. 2478, the Bahamas Temporary Protected Status Act, that would give amnesty in the form of TPS to any Bahamian who could get to the United States before the bill's enactment. She also cosponsored S. 636, the Venezuela Temporary Protected Status Act, which would offer the same protections for Venezuelans.
She's been one of the most vocal advocates for DACA -- Pres. Obama's executive amnesty program for younger illegal aliens -- and supports giving amnesty to most of the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens.
Sen. Harris has also cosponsored a number of Ag Amnesty proposals, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein's S. 175, the Agricultural Worker Program Act, that would give illegal farm workers amnesty and create a program of indentured servitude for America's corporate farmers.
NO NEED FOR ENFORCEMENT
Sen. Harris' views on enforcement also mirror that of the Biden-Sanders Unity Plan. She supports eliminating most interior enforcement, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and encouraging future border surges.
Sen. Harris cosponsored Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) S. 1440 that would eliminate the 287(g) program. 287(g) is a voluntary program allowing local law enforcement to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to create a force multiplier in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. As a candidate for president, Sen. Harris said she would limit interior enforcement efforts to only illegal aliens who pose a threat to public safety.
She has taken no position on reasonable enforcement measures, including mandating E-Verify for all employers and implementing a biometric entry-exit system to track visa overstays.
In July of 2019, Sen. Harris joined most other Democratic presidential hopefuls in calling for decriminalizing illegal border crossings.
"I would not make it punishable by jail. It should be a civil enforcement issue, but not a criminal enforcement issue."
Sen. Harris has also cosponsored a number of bills that have proven to encourage border surges in recent years, including making it more difficult to detain family units who cross the border illegally, making it more difficult to remove illegal aliens by granting them right to counsel, and expanding asylum to those not covered by international law.
You can see all of the information we've gathered on Kamala Harris during her time in the U.S. Senate by viewing her grade card and her profile page from our Presidential Hopefuls Voter Guide.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI is the Deputy Director for NumbersUSA
