A decades-old academic paper written by Vice President Kamala Harris's father reveals a striking contrast between his economic views and his daughter's current immigration policies.
According to the New York Post, Donald Harris, an emeritus professor at Stanford University, expressed significant concerns about mass immigration's impact on Black workers in his 1988 co-authored treatise "Black Economic Progress: An Agenda for the 1990s."
The scholarly work emerged just two years after President Ronald Reagan's 1986 immigrant amnesty law, presenting a perspective that significantly differs from the current administration's immigration policies.
Donald Harris, now 86 years old and a Marxist economist, presented detailed analysis about international trade trends and their effects on American workers. His research specifically highlighted concerns about modifications to U.S. immigration laws that increased low-skilled worker influx.
From the treatise, Donald Harris wrote:
Trends in international trade have moved against U.S. workers. U.S. immigration laws have been modified in ways that increase the influx of low-skilled workers, who compete with native-born youths and low-skilled adult workers for low-skilled jobs.
The academic's residence, just two miles from his daughter in Washington, D.C., adds a personal dimension to their contrasting views on immigration policy. Their relationship has been notably distant since his divorce from Kamala's mother in 1972.
Vice President Harris's current stance on immigration markedly differs from her father's earlier positions. Her support for providing pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants stands in stark contrast to her father's economic warnings.
The Biden-Harris administration's first day in office saw the introduction of the US Citizenship Act of 2021, which proposed granting legal status to millions of unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United States. Black GOP political consultant Shermichael Singleton states:
The influx of illegal immigrants and thus low-skilled labor advocated by Harris/Walz, exacerbates inequalities by driving down wages and creating competition among those already marginalized, particularly black Americans.
The elder Harris's position aligns with other progressive voices from that era. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders previously expressed similar concerns about open borders, viewing them as potentially harmful to American workers.
The academic paper's timing, published in the aftermath of the 1986 amnesty law, reflects a period of significant debate about immigration's economic impact. These discussions continue to resonate in current political discourse.
Neither the Harris campaign nor Professor Harris provided responses to requests for comment on this matter.
The contrast between Donald Harris's academic warnings and Vice President Harris's current immigration policies illustrates the evolution of Democratic Party positions on immigration over several decades. The 1988 treatise represents a historical snapshot of economic thinking that differed significantly from current progressive positions.
The father-daughter divergence on immigration policy reflects broader changes in political discourse surrounding immigration reform and economic impact. Their contrasting views highlight the complex relationship between academic economic theory and practical political policy implementation in modern America.
