CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris claimed, in a televised interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, that a bill to expand immigration put forth by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) had such widespread support it would have passed Congress if not for former President Donald Trump’s opposition.
VERDICT: False. In reality, the Lankford-Murphy-Sinema bill enjoyed bipartisan opposition from nearly all House and Senate Republicans, as well as many House and Senate Democrats who took issue with the bill failing to include amnesty for illegal aliens.
“Joe Biden and I, and our administration, worked with members of the United States Congress on an immigration issue … through bipartisan work, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress,” Harris told Bash in the interview:
A bill was crafted which we supported, which I support, and Donald Trump got word of this bill that would have contributed to securing our border. And because he belives that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress, don’t put it forward. He killed the bill. [Emphasis added]
Harris’s characterization of the border bill is untrue.
In early January of this year, the Immigration Accountability Project helped leak the details of the bill to the American public — noting that it increased legal immigration levels while expediting work permits for migrants released into the United States, and most infamously, permitting tens of thousands of migrants to cross the border every week before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could use any type of border controls.
While Trump urged Republicans to oppose the bill due to its provisions, House and Senate Republicans had already started opposing the bill when details leaked. Likewise, House and Senate Democrats began opposing the bill as well, because it did not include amnesty for illegal aliens.
Most prominently, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) opposed the bill, along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
“I will not vote for the bill coming to the Senate floor this week because it includes several provisions that will violate Americans’ shared values. These provisions would not make us safe,” Booker said in May before the bill failed in a vote.
In early February of this year, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said they would oppose the bill because it lacked amnesty for illegal aliens.
“From what I have read so far, the Senate negotiated [the] deal to address our challenges at the border fails to meet the moment,” Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA), chair of the caucus, said at the time.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), who serves as whip for the caucus, said the bill’s failure to include amnesty for “all DREAMers is unacceptable.”
“… this is not real reform,” Garcia said. “Real reform would include a pathway to citizenship for ALL DREAMers. With this bill, Dreamers have been betrayed by the Senate. Americans have been clear: DREAMers need to stay.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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