ACLU Announces Roadmap to Protect and Expand Immigrants’ Rights Under a Harris Administration

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released the Harris on Immigration: A New Opportunity to Reform Our Immigration System memo today, outlining Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s expected commitments and policy recommendations on immigration and how the ACLU will ensure Harris protects and expands immigrants’ rights if she is elected. The release of the memo comes as Harris hits the campaign trail as the new presumptive Democratic nominee and is part of ACLU’s 2024 election policy memo series exploring likely policies from a potential Trump or Harris administration.

Policy recommendations within the memo include executive action to deliver critical protections for longtime residents who have become integral to the fabric of our nation. The memo also outlines the additional actions that can and should be taken to restore our asylum system and expand immigrants’ rights should Harris become president, and outlines how the ACLU and its nationwide network of attorneys and advocates will work towards these goals in the courts, Congress, and communities across the country.

“A Harris administration could provide a critical opportunity to ensure a balanced and humane approach to U.S. immigration policy that recognizes the contributions of immigrants to our communities,” said Maribel Hernández Rivera, director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration at the ACLU. “Poll after poll, including research from the ACLU, shows that Americans support fair, orderly, and efficient policies that improve border management while offering a pathway to citizenship for our longtime neighbors — and a Harris administration should deliver on the will of the American people.”

“If elected, a Kamala Harris administration has an opportunity to chart a new course on U.S. immigration policy and ensure a pathway to citizenship for longtime residents, while doing the critical work to restore our nation’s asylum system,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “As we have under every administration in the last two decades, we will continue to challenge the government when it violates the constitution and laws, as with prolonged immigration detention, detention of people in abusive conditions of confinement, anti-asylum bans, and immigration proceedings that violate due process and basic standards of fairness.”

The ACLU’s roadmap released today outlines our plan to push for balanced and humane immigration reforms and to expand other immigrants’ rights in every state across the country:

• Among other policy recommendations within the ACLU’s memo, one of the most significant and powerful ways for a Harris administration to reform our immigration system is bydelivering on a pathway to citizenship for residents who already contribute to our communities and economy. The ACLU will call on a future Harris administration to exercise executive power to expand pathways for people inside and outside the United States to safely seek lawful status.
• Recent reports indicate that a Harris administration would re-introduce the 2024 Senate Border Act — which would have permanently decimated asylum protections — and continue the anti-asylum policies of the Biden administration. The ACLU has previously challenged the Biden administration’s illegal asylum restrictions — as we did with the Trump administration’s asylum bans — and if Harris does not change course, we will hold her to account as well.
• A future Harris administration should also cease federal participation in state and local anti-immigrant programs that go against our nation’s values and moral commitments.That includes ending federal participation in Texas’ deadly Operation Lone Star program, and finally dismantling the 287(g) program that deputizes state and local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. The ACLU will demand that a Harris administration take strong action against state and municipal governments that illegally attempt to engage in immigration enforcement, including by challenging them in court, and will continue to leverage its network of attorneys to challenge anti-immigrant state laws.
• The ACLU memo also makes the case for why Harris should act on the promises she made in 2019 to decrease immigration detention and in turn, take aggressive executive action to dismantle the mass detention machine that she rightly condemned in the past.

The Harris on Immigration memo marks the fourth of six memos the ACLU is releasing on the Democratic nominee. In addition to immigration, the memos will focus on the criminal legal system and surveillance, and have previously covered abortion, LGBTQ rights, and voting rights. This series follows seven memos the ACLU released on policies of a potential second Trump administration. New memos will be released through August and will be available here.