Flashback: Harris campaign shared study touting 'electoral' benefits of not deporting illegal immigrants

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FIRST ON FOX: Then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign website linked to a study touting what it called the "electoral implications" of not deporting some illegal immigrants, saying that the policy "could provide sizable contributions to the margin of victory in swing states."

Harris’ campaign website touted a "new roadmap to citizenship for Dreamers," referring to illegal immigrants who came to the country as children. Her plan called for a pathway to citizenship for those who entered the U.S. illegally and protection from deportation for illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders.

"We estimate the plan will protect over 6 million immigrants from deportation, add up to $445 billion to U.S. GDP over ten years, and provide America’s 2.1 million Dreamers a path to citizenship if they have a congressionally-required family- or employment-based grounds to adjust status," her website said.

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Vice President Kamala Harris has frequently called for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. (Leigh Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

That paragraph linked to two studies by the Center for American Progress, including one that looked at the Obama-era Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents [DAPA] program. DAPA, the companion of a similar program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, for those who came as children, was subsequently found to be unconstitutional.

However, the 2015 study touted not only the economic benefits of DAPA, but also the "electoral implications" of protecting them from deportation.

"Implementing DAPA is not only the right thing to do for families and the economy—it also has key electoral implications," the study said.

It went on to say that there are 3.7 million people who would benefit from DAPA, who have 5.5 million U.S. citizen children.

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Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state in southern Mexico, on Sunday, July 21, 2024 during their journey north toward the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)

"More than half a million of these children – nearly 600,000 – are currently of voting age, and 1.7 million will be of voting age by the 2020 presidential election. These numbers could provide sizable contributions to the margin of victory in swing states," it says.

"In Florida during the 2012 presidential election, for example, these new voters would have comprised 70 percent of the margin of victory; in North Carolina, they would have represented one-third of the margin of victory. These figures do not take into account other citizen members of "mixed-status" households that include DAPA-eligible individuals—voters who would also feel the effect of DAPA implementation," it says.

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Harris has continued to support various protections and pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The Biden administration, on day one in office, introduced legislation that would grant a pathway to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

In a statement in June, she said that "there is more work to be done to fix our broken immigration system."

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"That includes the need for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. President Biden and I continue to call on the United States Congress to join us in acting by passing permanent protections for Dreamers," she said.

The Harris campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.