Vice President Kamala Harris has demonstrated a tendency to subtly but unconvincingly shift her stance on various issues, including immigration, since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Her choice not to disavow her 2019 mass amnesty plan is particularly concerning. In 2019, Harris set herself apart from other candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary by pledging to use unilateral executive power to grant permanent amnesty to so-called Dreamers and 6 million other undocumented immigrants.
Specifically, Harris proposed establishing a “first of its kind” parole-in-place program for participants in President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—commonly known as Dreamers. This initiative would leverage the complexities of immigration law to potentially set Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship without the need for new legislation, the Washington Examiner reports.
The concept of parole in place originated as an extralegal program under Obama in 2013, designed to assist the spouses, children, and parents of current and former members of the armed forces. While spouses of U.S. citizens can apply for citizenship, those who entered the country illegally are typically ineligible. Obama’s solution was to grant them “parole in place,” effectively converting their previous illegal entry into a lawful parole status, the outlet continued.
For seven years, the parole-in-place program operated as an unofficial measure until it was formally codified by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA restricted the program to members of the armed forces and their spouses, children, or parents. In contrast, Harris’s 2019 proposal aimed to extend parole in place to all DACA recipients and expand the DACA program itself, despite the absence of a statutory foundation for such a program. By June 2024, President Joe Biden introduced his own version of parole in place, targeting not DACA recipients but rather the spouses of all U.S. citizens, regardless of military service, the Examiner noted further.
The outlet added:
This executive order was immediately challenged by Republican governors, and a federal court issued an injunction to stop the program. That litigation is still ongoing and has not been resolved. It could be thrown out on standing grounds without ever reaching the merits of whether or not a president has the power to grant unilateral amnesty as Biden did.
Asked if Harris plans to grant unilateral executive amnesty to Dreamers, her campaign declined to answer. It also declined to say if there were any other illegal immigrants to whom she planned to grant parole in place status. That is an important admission.
Both the Biden parole in place amnesty and Harris’s proposed parole in place amnesty lack any statutory basis. If federal courts decline to strike them down on standing, it would mean Harris could give amnesty to all illegal immigrants.
The Biden-Harris administration has already expanded the use of parole authority to admit millions of illegal immigrants, creating an extralegal immigration system alongside the existing legal framework. Given their willingness to grant parole status to individuals seeking to enter the country, there are concerns that Harris might similarly offer retroactive parole status to millions of illegal immigrants already residing here.
“Harris should be hounded by the press until she either repudiates her 2019 parole in place plan, as well as the Biden 2024 parole in place plan, or she should admit her administration is planning to grant the largest illegal mass amnesty in U.S. history,” the outlet’s editorial board concluded.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.