Vice President Kamala Harris touted an immigration bill from 2021 as evidence that she and President Biden worked to strengthen U.S. immigration policies ahead of the migrant crisis that has rocked the U.S. in the last three and a half years.
A review of the bill, however, shows it would have paved the way to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
“At the beginning of our administration, within practically hours of taking the oath, the first bill that we offered Congress – before we worked on infrastructure, before the Inflation Reduction Act, before the Chips and Science Act, before the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the first bill, practically within hours of taking the oath, was a bill to fix our immigration system,” Harris said when speaking with Fox News’ Bret Baier last week in her first interview with Fox News since Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July and Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket.
“Yes, ma’am. It was called the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021,” Baier responded, which Baier described as “essentially a pathway to citizenship.”
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Fox News Channel’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris moderated by “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier drew a whopping 7.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched interview of the 2024 election season. (Fox News Channel)
“Exactly,” Harris responded before Baier began to say that the bill “was essentially a pathway to citizenship.”
Harris’ response came after Baier grilled the VP on the Biden-Harris administration reversing Trump border policies upon their inauguration in 2021, including a Trump policy that required illegal immigrants to be detained while awaiting asylum hearings. Baier asked Harris if she “regrets” terminating the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy in light of illegal immigrant males who have allegedly committed ghastly crimes such as murder in the U.S. under the administration.
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One of the biggest questions during this presidential election cycle is how a Harris administration would look different from a Biden one. (Getty Images)
On Biden and Harris’ first day in office in 2021, the president sent Congress a piece of legislation touted as one that would “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system.”
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was never enacted, dying in Congress instead, and detailed that in addition to “modernizing” the U.S. immigration system, it explicitly detailed it would “provide pathways to citizenship & strengthen labor protections.”
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As Democrats in Congress unveiled the bill in February of that year, the White House estimated that up to 11 million illegal immigrants could earn citizenship through an eight-year plan, including those deported under the Trump administration, Fox News Digital reported at the time.
Immigrants line up at a remote Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 7, 2023 in Lukeville, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“Applicants must be physically present in the United States on or before January 1, 2021. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may waive the presence requirement for those deported on or after January 20, 2017 who were physically present for at least three years prior to removal for family unity and other humanitarian purposes. Lastly, the bill further recognizes America as a nation of immigrants by changing the word ‘alien’ to ‘noncitizen’ in our immigration laws,” the White House’s fact sheet for the bill stated.
Other items in the bill included granting immediate eligibility for green cards to farmworkers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. It would have also opened up legal pathways to immigration by expanding the controversial green card lottery from 55,000 a year to 80,000 a year and exempting children and spouses from visa cap numbers.
Conservatives in Congress slammed the legislation as an amnesty bill that would not only fail to bolster immigration laws, but encourage people to illegally cross into the U.S.
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Migrants wait in line to be processed by the Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas. (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called it a “massive proposal for blanket amnesty that would gut enforcement of American laws while creating huge new incentives for people to rush here illegally at the same time.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who was part of the 2013 “Gang of Eight,” brushed the legislation off as a non-starter.
Harris was grilled about her immigration policies during her interview with Baier, frequently dodging the questions by responding with criticisms of former President Trump.
Baier kicked off the interview Wednesday by asking Harris how many illegal immigrants were released by the Biden administration into the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, on Oct. 17, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“Well, I’m glad you raised the issue of immigration, because I agree with you,” Harris responded. “It is a topic of discussion that people want to rightly have. And you know what I’m going to talk about-“
“But just a number,” Baier pressed. “Do you think it’s 1 million? Three million?”
“Bret, let’s just get to the point, OK? The point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired,” Harris said, before Baier interjected that the Department of Homeland Security estimates 6 million illegal immigrants have been released in the U.S. since the Biden-Harris administration.
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Immigration, the economy, health care and abortion are among top voter concerns this election cycle. Fox News Power Rankings published earlier this month found Trump has a clear advantage on immigration, leading Harris by 11 points.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.