A victim of an illegal immigrant criminal kept out of prison by a program created by Vice President Kamala Harris says the incident opened her eyes and is now a supporter of former President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to ABC News.
Amanda Kiefer was left with a fractured skull in 2008 when Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, snatched her purse and hopped into a car that then attempted to run her over. Izaguirre had been arrested on drug charges before the attack but was kept out of prison after being selected for a jobs program created by Harris, then the San Francisco District Attorney.
Kiefer, now 45, says her politics changed after the violent attack, according to an interview with ABC News.
“When a policy negatively affects you, you wake up,” Keifer said to ABC News. She told the news outlet that she was a self-professed liberal before the attack but is now a supporter of Trump’s policies.
While serving as the top prosecutor for San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, Harris led an initiative called “Back on Track,” according to a 2009 article from the Los Angeles Times. The program was intended to help felons get their convictions expunged by placing them into a jobs program in lieu of serving time in prison — but Harris wasn’t aware her office was enrolling illegal immigrants into the program until the 2008 attack on Kiefer.
Harris said the placement of illegal immigrants into “Back on Track” was a “flaw” and vowed at the time to no longer enroll them into the program, according to the LA Times. She also said she wasn’t aware how many illegal immigrants were ultimately placed into the program.
“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.
Kiefer has donated numerous times to GOP causes since 2020, according to ABC News. She also said it was “laughable” for Harris to frame herself as a tough prosecutor going against a convicted felon.
Since President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, Harris has established herself as the presumptive Democratic nominee, drawing a sharper focus on her immigration record.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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