Vice President Kamala Harris once supported a nationwide sanctuary policy that aimed to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from issuing detainers on illegal aliens, effectively shielding them from deportation. In a 2019 ACLU questionnaire, Harris pledged to end ICE’s use of detainers, focusing enforcement on public safety instead of immigration detentions.
As a former California Attorney General, Harris defended the state’s sanctuary policies and even threatened local police with lawsuits for complying with ICE. Harris also co-sponsored the DONE Act in 2018, aimed at reducing ICE detention beds by 50%. During the Biden administration, ICE issued fewer detainers compared to the Trump era, with over 270,000 detainers issued from 2021 to 2023, versus more than 607,000 under Trump.
Harris has long advocated for closing ICE detention centers and told a crowd in 2019 that she would shut down private contractor-run detention facilities on her first day in office.
