'Laughable': Migrant crime survivor calls out VP Harris' soft-on-crime stances as San Francisco DA
Amanda Kiefer, migrant crime survivor, recalls being robbed by an illegal immigrant who was later released under the 'Back on Track' program by then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
The victim of a violent attack at the hands of an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, Calif. while Vice President Kamala Harris was district attorney is sounding the alarm on the presidential hopeful's "laughable" crime agenda.
"The crime in San Francisco was so bad when I was there, and I've heard that it's gotten so much worse even since then due to liberal policies… If that's how the rest of the country is going to be under Kamala Harris as president, that's just scary. It really is," Amanda Kiefer told "Fox & Friends First" Thursday.
Kiefer was walking with a group of friends in a "nice neighborhood" in 2008 when 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre stole her purse and then attempted to run her down in a waiting SUV, fracturing her skull.
Detroit, MI - September 2: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on Labor Day at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan, on Monday, September 2, 2024. (Photo by Sarah Rice for The Washington Post via Getty Images) (Sarah Rice for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Izaguirre was in the country illegally and had been arrested a few months prior to the attack on drug charges. But he was free due to a program launched by then-District Attorney Harris that allowed nonviolent offenders to avoid jail by entering job training and having their records expunged.
"He was given the option to stay out of prison, to train for jobs he couldn't legally hold on the taxpayer dollar," Kiefer said.
Kiefer testified Wednesday at a House panel on the border crisis' impact on crime under the Biden-Harris administration. She expressed dissatisfaction with how Democrats have dismissed the GOP-led series of Congressional hearings after an image of Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and an aide appearing disinterested during the previous day's testimony circulated online.
"There weren't many members of Congress that were there on the Democrat side. They think this is irrelevant. They're not interested… to be that callous, to not want to hear the stories of people who have lost their loved ones to crime caused by having an open border of unvetted invaders basically coming into this country... It just shows you exactly where their mindset is," she said.
Kiefer’s testimony at the "The Consequences of Soft-On-Crime Policies" hearing hit hard on the programs that put someone like Izaguirre back on the streets and the left's "commitment to that Marxist principle that criminals are just victims of capitalism, that somehow a job or handout will eliminate their tendency toward violent crime."
"No-bail laws, later sentencing and identity politics-driven leniency put violent people on the streets again to harm others," Kiefer said. "There’s no fear of being caught or any reason to stop committing crimes."
"It's a gut punch," she added. "It's unfair. It's heartbreaking, and Americans need to stop putting up with it. No one's taking accountability for failing to keep the American people safe."
Nadler, the committee's ranking member, argued that "it is important to hear from crime victims and other impacted people," but alleged that the hearing on Wednesday had "no intent whatsoever to disguise the purpose of this hearing… to attack the surging popularity of Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz."
Vice President Kamala Harris' time as district attorney of San Francisco is under scrutiny. Screengrab from 'Fox & Friends First' 9/12/2024
Tensions were high at Tuesday's hearing when Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar accused Republicans of playing politics with the families of migrant crime victims.
"I think what is most frustrating to me as a member of Congress is what is happening today at this committee hearing, where we have colleagues who are exploiting people's pain for political purposes," Escobar said.
April Aguirre, a crime victims’ advocate who also testified at the hearing, called Escobar's remark an "insulting" assumption.
"You said some very broad statements insulting these people, lost loved ones, they lost children, and we want to see a difference," Aguirre stated. "We may not understand everything that's going on, but I assure you that we're not being used in any way."
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Fox News' Peter Aitken contributed to this report
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