Bret Baier (
01:01):
And when you came into office, your administration immediately reversed a number of Trump border policies, most significantly, the policy that required illegal immigrants to be detained through deportation either in the US or in Mexico. And you switched that policy, they were released from custody awaiting trial. So instead, included in those were a large number of single men, adult men who went on to commit heinous crimes. So looking back, do you regret the decision to terminate remain in Mexico at the beginning of your administration?
Kamala Harris (
01:36):
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.
Bret Baier (
02:06):
Yes, ma’am. It was called the US Citizenship Act of 2021.
Kamala Harris (
02:11):
Exactly.
Bret Baier (
02:11):
It was essentially a pathway to citizenship for the-
Kamala Harris (
02:14):
May I please finish?
Bret Baier (
02:14):
Yes, ma’am.
Kamala Harris (
02:14):
May I finish responding please?
Bret Baier (
02:17):
But here, but this-
Kamala Harris (
02:17):
But you have to let me finish, please.
Bret Baier (
02:19):
You had the White House and the House and the Senate and they didn’t bring up that bill.
Kamala Harris (
02:22):
I’m in the middle responding to the point you’re raising.
Bret Baier (
02:24):
Okay.
Kamala Harris (
02:24):
And I’d like to finish.
Bret Baier (
02:26):
Yes, ma’am.
Kamala Harris (
02:28):
We recognized from day one that to the point of this being your first question, it is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people. And our focus has been on fixing a problem. And from day one then, we have done a number of things, including to address our asylum system and put more resources, getting more judges, what we needed to do to tighten up penalties and increase penalties for illegal crossings, what we needed to do to deal with points of entry between border entry points. That’s the work we did.
(
03:07)
And we worked on supporting what was a bipartisan effort, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, to actually strengthen the border. That border bill would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border, which is why I believe the border patrol agents supported the bill. It would’ve allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States, which is a scourge affecting people of every background, every geographic location in our country, killing people. It would’ve allowed us to put more resources into prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, which I have done-
