How Kamala Harris wanted to cut funding for ICE and provide financial support for transgender migrants wanting surgery
A resurfaced ACLU questionnaire reveals Harris shifted positions further left
By Charlie Spiering
Daily Mail
Sep 9, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks onstage during a Pride Celebration hosted by the Vice President Of The United States
Vice President Kamala Harris has long supported the idea of taxpayers funding sex change surgeries for transgender inmates, but a new document reveals just how far she would go to make sure everyone in prison is comfortable with their gender.
A newly surfaced ACLU questionnaire from 2019 shows that Harris supported the idea of offering sex-change surgeries to illegal immigrants or migrants held in federal custody.
Harris checked 'yes' in response to a question whether she would offer government funded care for 'transgender and nonbinary people' - including 'those in prison and immigration detention.'
'It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition,' Harris wrote, detailing her response.
'Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment,' she added.
Harris was not always a fearless defender of prisoners receiving the gender care they needed.
When she was attorney general of California, Harris joined prison leaders by filing a request in May 2015 to the Ninth Circuit court to block sex reassignment surgery for a biological male who was transitioning into a female.
She lost the case, after a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the state of California to provide the surgery.
Later in her career, Harris pivoted to claim she helped the transgender inmate receive the care they needed.
United States Vice President Kamala Harris holds a roundtable marking LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the VP's office of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building
United States Vice President Kamala Harris holds a roundtable marking LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the VP's office
'When I learned about what they were doing, behind the scenes, I got them to change the policy, Harris falsely claimed during a LGBT forum during the 2020 Democratic primary.
'I commit to you that always in these systems there are going to be these things that these agencies do.'
Harris has since embraced many the sensitivities of transgender community including on issues of gender.
She has publicly proclaimed her gender pronouns (she/her) during events where transgender people are present, becoming the first vice president of the United States to do so.
Her campaign has also signaled it's intention to include transgender people by giving the option for applicants to select nine different genders.
Vice President Kamala Harris exits Air Force Two in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state in southern Mexico,
Harris also went further than most Democrats to demonstrate to the ACLU she was committed to cutting funds for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
'Our immigrant detention system is out of control, and I believe we must end the unfair incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children,' Harris wrote on the questionnaire.
'I was one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.'
Harris also voiced her support for completely reimagining the existence of the federal immigration enforcement agency during her failed presidential campaign in 2016.
'I think there's no question that we've got to critically re-examine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing,' Harris said to MSNBC anchor Kasie Hunt. 'And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.'
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