Less than two hours after President Joe Biden last week announced his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, the Republican National Committee released a two-minute campaign ad blasting Vice President Kamala Harris as “dangerously liberal” and claiming she “was liberal on illegal immigration before she ever reached the White House.”
The ad highlighted the 2008 story of a San Francisco woman who was attacked by a man who was in the country illegally and had been arrested months earlier on drug charges — but was released as part of a new program that had been launched by Harris, then the city’s district attorney.
Now, as Harris tries to frame her campaign against former President Donald Trump as a choice between a tough prosecutor and a convicted felon, the victim of the 2008 assault, Amanda Kiefer, is calling that message from Harris “laughable.”
“When a policy negatively affects you, you wake up,” Keifer, now 45, told ABC News, speaking about her experience publicly for the first time in 15 years.
According to the RNC ad, Harris “allowed illegal immigrant drug dealers to enter job training” instead of entering prison.
The program, called Back on Track, was billed as a “smart on crime” initiative that could reduce rates of recidivism by empowering lower-level nonviolent offenders to redirect their lives away from crime. Offenders who received job training and completed the program had their records expunged.
But, as Harris told the Los Angeles Times when the newspaper first highlighted Kiefer’s story in 2009, there was a “flaw in the design” of the program — an unintended loophole — that let perpetrators who were in the country illegally receive the job training and remain free, even though they couldn’t lawfully obtain a job.
A spokesperson for Harris declined to comment on the record for this story.
‘Most Americans would disapprove’
In July 2008, when Kiefer was 29, she was walking with a group of friends in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco when 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre stole her purse and jumped into a waiting SUV. The driver of the vehicle then attempted to run Kiefer down, leaving her with a fractured skull.
“If people who committed crimes were allowed to stay out of prison to train for jobs they couldn’t legally hold, I think most Americans would disapprove of that,” Kiefer told ABC News.
Harris seemed to agree with that even 15 years ago, telling the Los Angeles Times then that “the whole point of the program [was] … to obtain and hold down lawful employment” — and that someone in the country illegally “probably would not be able to do that, so it would go against the very spirit of the program.”
“I believe we fixed it,” Harris said of the loophole at the time. “So moving forward, it is about making sure that no one enters Back on Track if they cannot hold legal employment.”
In total, fewer than a dozen undocumented immigrants gained entry into the program, which reportedly became a model for other law enforcement agencies around the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, July 25, 2024.
Julia Nikhinson/AP
Even so, Trump and his supporters are now seeking to reintroduce Kiefer’s story to counter the vice president’s tough-on-crime posture and to feed into the false narrative that undocumented immigrants have contributed to a spike in crime nationwide, which is contradicted by statistics showing that U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than people who are in the country illegally.
Harris’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
It’s not the first time Harris has faced those accusations. During his unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, Trump used Kiefer’s story to attack Harris and what he alleged was her support for “deadly sanctuary cities.”
“As district attorney in San Francisco, Kamala put a drug-dealing illegal alien into a jobs program instead of into prison. Four months later, the illegal alien robbed a 29-year-old woman, mowed her down with an SUV, fracturing her skull and ruining her life,” Trump said at an August 2020 campaign stop in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. “We believe our country should be a sanctuary for law abiding Americans, not for criminal aliens.”
A ‘red pill moment’
Since becoming the Democratic party’s de-facto nominee, Harris has shied away from discussing the Southwest border, which under the Biden administration saw unprecedented levels of migrant crossings before the numbers began to drop in April.
According to Customs and Border Protection, its agents and officers have encountered more than 8.4 million migrants along the Southwest border since the Biden administration took office — more than four times the amount during the Trump administration. Under Biden, an additional 2 million or so border-crossers were reportedly detected but never captured.
But apprehension rates have dropped significantly in the past two months after the Biden administration announced new asylum restrictions. Government statistics released last week show that migrant encounters along the Southwest border fell by 55% since the restrictions took effect, with June seeing the lowest number of border encounters of any month in the last three years.
Harris, for her part, has continued to press for progressive solutions to both criminal justice and immigration enforcement.
As for Kiefer, the violent assault she suffered was what she called her “red pill moment” — a reference to a pill in the movie “The Matrix” that grants users the ability to see harsh realities.
A self-professed liberal at the time, Kiefer says she now supports the policies of Trump. Government records show she has supported other conservative efforts in recent years, donating small-dollar amounts to Republican causes 17 times since 2020.
Trump earlier this year touted his role in pushing key Republicans to defeat a bipartisan Senate bill that its supporters say would have helped beef up border security and immigration enforcement. Trump described the bill as a political play by Democrats.
Before Izaguirre’s sentencing in 2010, Harris reportedly lent her “full encouragement and support” to his deportation. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement records, Izaguirre was deported to Honduras in 2011.
ABC News’ Quinn Owen contributed to this report.
In a recent turn of events, the victim of a 2008 attack carried out by an undocumented immigrant has come forward to criticize Senator Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic vice presidential nominee. This criticism has been seized upon by allies of President Donald Trump as they seek to undermine Harris and her stance on immigration.
The attack in question took place in 2008 when Tony Bologna and his two sons were fatally shot by Edwin Ramos, an undocumented immigrant and member of the MS-13 gang. The incident sparked outrage and reignited the debate over immigration policies and enforcement.
Now, more than a decade later, Tony Bologna’s widow, Danielle Bologna, has spoken out against Senator Harris, accusing her of failing to prosecute Ramos when she was the District Attorney of San Francisco. Bologna claims that Harris’s office did not pursue charges against Ramos for his previous crimes, which may have prevented the tragic attack from occurring.
This criticism has been amplified by Trump allies and conservative media outlets, who are using it as ammunition to attack Harris and her record on immigration. They argue that Harris’s leniency towards undocumented immigrants contributed to the Bologna family’s tragedy and question her ability to effectively address immigration issues if elected as vice president.
However, it is important to note that the circumstances surrounding the attack are complex and cannot be reduced to a simple narrative of blame. While it is true that Ramos was in the country illegally and had a criminal record, it is also true that the criminal justice system is often limited in its ability to prevent every tragic event.
Furthermore, Senator Harris has since acknowledged that mistakes were made in handling the case and has expressed regret for any pain caused to the Bologna family. She has also emphasized her commitment to comprehensive immigration reform and addressing the root causes of violence and crime in immigrant communities.
Ultimately, the criticism leveled against Senator Harris by the victim of the 2008 attack should be viewed in context and not used as a political weapon to score points. Immigration is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires thoughtful and compassionate solutions, rather than divisive rhetoric and blame.
As the 2020 election approaches, it is crucial for voters to carefully consider the candidates’ positions on immigration and other important issues, rather than getting caught up in sensationalized attacks and misinformation. Only by engaging in informed and constructive dialogue can we work towards a more just and equitable society for all.
