Vice President Kamala Harris’ time as a prosecutor is playing a significant role in her 2024 presidential run, with her campaign emphasizing that she has never “shied away from taking on those who harm the American people.” However, there are some incidents from her past as District Attorney of San Francisco that may raise questions about her commitment to public safety.
One such incident involves a program called “Back on Track,” which allowed illegal immigrants arrested for drug crimes to receive job training and have their records expunged while avoiding deportation due to the city’s sanctuary policies. Harris enthusiastically supported this program, despite one of its participants—an undocumented Honduran immigrant named Alexander Izaguirre—allegedly assaulting a young woman, leaving her with a skull fracture and long-term trauma.
Izaguirre was selected for the program after being arrested twice in eight months for allegedly snatching a purse and selling cocaine, as reported by the LA Times at the time. In July 2008, while participating in “Back on Track,” Izaguirre stole the purse of a San Francisco resident named Amanda Kiefer. He got into an SUV and attempted to run her down; she climbed onto the hood of the car and hit the brakes, causing her to be thrown into the road and suffer a fractured skull.
Kiefer’s story came to light while Harris was running for State Attorney General. She expressed regret that undocumented immigrants were allowed into her program, referring to the situation as “a huge kind of pimple on the face of this program.” However, she did not take any action to change the policy, nor did she expel the remaining undocumented participants from the program.
Harris’ tenure in San Francisco was also marked by her strong support for sanctuary city policies. In 2006, her spokesperson stated that “we are a sanctuary city, a city of refuge, and we always will be.” Under these policies, local authorities were not allowed to question one’s immigration status unless they committed a crime. However, the policy was often interpreted loosely by various city departments, leading many violent criminals to be released back onto the streets.
One such case involved Edwin Ramos, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador with a criminal record who killed a father and two sons in a triple murder in June 2008. Ramos had previously been involved in a gang-related assault on a bus passenger and an attempted robbery of a pregnant woman; however, the juvenile probation department did not involve federal immigration authorities due to city policy.
In March 2008, Ramos was released from police custody after being caught with no license plate and sitting next to another gang member who had attempted to discard a gun used in a double murder. Police said they would not file charges because they could not prove that Ramos knew about the gun. The family of the victims later sued the city, alleging that the loose interpretation of sanctuary city policies led to their murders.
Despite pleas from the family to seek the death penalty for Ramos, Harris advocated for a life sentence without parole, staying true to her anti-death penalty campaign promise. While Harris’ campaign did not respond to an inquiry from The Post regarding these incidents, they may raise questions about her commitment to public safety and willingness to take on those who harm the American people during her 2024 presidential run.
