He Separates Families, She Fights to Keep Them Together

Vice President Harris’s Record on Immigration is a Blueprint for Solving One of America’s Greatest Challenges

Many commentators have asserted that “immigration” is the weakest issue for Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump and Republicans will continue to hammer Harris and Democrats on the border.

But betting against Harris on immigration is possibly one of the worst bets Trump could make against a daughter of immigrants who brings with her the full breadth of the American Dream and an impressive record of getting the job done. 

Harris, afterall, has already prosecuted the case against Trump. In 2018, then-Senator Harris took Trump and his administration to task, putting a spotlight on his hallmark policy - family separation - and using every tool at her disposal to stop his cruel treatment of children.

Harris rose to a moment in our dark history to lead a movement of lawmakers, concerned citizens, and advocates to fight for Dreamers, children, mothers and fathers, and workers who are intrinsically part of our communities and economy. This is who she was then and who she is today – a leader who’s serious about delivering solutions to keep families together, secure our borders and create pathways to citizenship.

It’s always been about fixing our immigration system, at every level of her career.

• As California’s Attorney General, she fought for Dreamers and put cartels and drug-traffickers on notice.
• As U.S. Senator, she grilled Trump and his administration on family separation and led the charge over Trump’s decision to end DACA.
• As Vice President, she’s implemented policies against cartels and fentanyl while championing pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and American families.

The bottom line: Trump and Republicans don’t have a case against Kamala Harris’s immigration record. They don’t even have a formidable platform to stand on.

Trump, J.D Vance and the Project 2025 crew are set on dismantling our immigration system with a thousand cuts, allowing it to bleed into our democracy and economy. That’s not a plan; that’s a threat to all families in America. 

Taking an even closer look at Harris’s record, it becomes abundantly clear that she’s walked the walk, even when the road got steep. When President Biden and Vice President Harris came into office, they inherited a nearly eviscerated immigration system that left Dreamers and workers without protections, children without their parents, blocked paths to citizenship, bans on asylum and a disorderly and dangerous border with little to no resources. The former administration had never been interested in solving our immigration system for the good of our country or economy. 

No, their answer was to erase the system altogether.

In response, Harris supported President Biden in issuing over 500 executive actions, including over 300 actions to undo harmful Trump-era immigration policies. As part of this massive effort to restore and rebuild our immigration system, Harris took on the toughest challenge – tackling the root causes of forced migration. She led the Root Causes Strategy, aimed at improving security, economic conditions, human rights, and governance in the Western Hemisphere to reduce migration to the U.S. Often ignored or underreported, the VP’s results are remarkable: 

• She mobilized over $5.2 billion in private sector investments from companies like Microsoft and Mastercard, creating 250,000 jobs, funding small businesses, and supporting women’s economic inclusion. 
• Secured $310 million in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, and successfully negotiated nearly $169 million from the UN for humanitarian relief. 
• Launched the “In Her Hands” initiative to empower 5 million women in Guatemala with job support, financial literacy, and technical training by 2030. 

Today, Harris and her campaign have to contend with the multi-million dollar attacks on her immigration record and vision as Trump vows mass deportation of our neighbors, colleagues, family and friends. Smartly, she’s responding against the conventional “wisdom” to pivot away from the issue. And she should continue to do so, reminding voters that she’ll continue to fight to keep us all safe and secure and work across the aisle on Day One to deliver a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and long-settled immigrant families. It’s not just her prosecution of Trump that will mobilize voters in November, but her blueprint for our immigration system that will energize a new coalition of devoted Harris voters.