Vice President Kamala Harris made a 180-degree turn on her opinion about prosecuting illegal border crossings during her long-awaited first interview since becoming the Democratic Party’s official nominee for president. 

CNN anchor Dana Bash questioned Harris Thursday about whether she still believed illegal border crossings should be prosecuted, something Harris indicated she was against while running her 2019 campaign to become president.

“I believe there should be consequence,” Harris told Bash. “We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. … And let’s be clear, in this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings. I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. And I would enforce our laws as president going forward.”

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Harris’ comments Thursday contrasted with what she has said and done in the past regarding illegal immigration, particularly when it comes to illegal border crossings. 

Besides indicating during a nationally televised debate that she would not pursue people who have crossed the border illegally for prosecution, she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2015 that “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” She also posted the claim on social media. And in a riff with the late Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, during a 2019 episode of “The View,” Harris reiterated her stance.

“I would not make it a crime punishable by jail,” she said. “It should be a civil enforcement issue but not a criminal enforcement issue.” 

As a U.S. senator, Harris sought to strip funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And as California’s attorney general, she instructed local law enforcement not to adhere to ICE detainers when they request that someone who has committed a crime and crossed the border illegally be held until they can be taken into custody to initiate deportation procedures. 

Harris has also compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.

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Fox News Digital spoke to critics who called Harris’ comments “insincere” and “for election purposes” only. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital spoke to two conservative immigration law experts who called her comments “insincere” and “for election purposes” only. 

“If someone cares about enforcing our laws as they pertain to the border, you would think that they would be a part of and lead an administration that prosecutes sufficient offenses related to crossing the border unlawfully,” said Gene Hamilton, the director of America First Legal, a right-wing legal group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. 

“The Department of Justice’s prosecution for border-related offenses are at rock bottom. They are lower than even the Obama years, and that’s saying something.”

Hamilton, who served as counselor to the attorney general at the Department of Justice under former President Trump, argued a key metric in determining how seriously an administration is taking border security is the number of illegal border crossings compared to the number of individuals deported. 

Last year, there were 2.4 million illegal border crossings, according to Department of Justice data, Hamilton said. 

Meanwhile, the Justice Department prosecuted around 20,000 of those violations. 

“You know, the numbers — the numbers speak for themselves,” Hamilton argued. He also pointed out that in 2019, under Trump, there were fewer illegal border crossings than the country faced in 2023, but the Trump administration still prosecuted more than five times the number of illegal border crossers than the Biden-Harris administration in 2023.

“As she said last night in her interview, her values have not changed. She said that over and over again,” said Lora Ries, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center. “She is telling her base, ‘Look, don’t worry about what the campaign is saying right now. We just have to say that to try and get elected. But my values have not changed.’”

NBC REPORTER CALLS OUT KAMALA HARRIS FOR SAYING HER ‘VALUES HAVEN’T CHANGED’: ‘HER POSITIONS HAVE CHANGED’

Vice President Kamala Harris raised eyebrows when telling CNN’s Dana Bash that her “values haven’t changed” after making complete reversals on far-left positions she held in 2019. (Screenshot/CNN)

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Ries slammed the Biden-Harris administration for “gaslighting” the American public but argued the Harris campaign “is taking it to another level” by denying Harris was tapped to be the border czar and pretending as if she is not in power and able to enact tougher measures at the border.

“She’s in power right now. If she truly meant it, she would do it now, and she’s not. But to pretend like you’re not in power and not in office right now is a higher level of gaslighting,” said Ries. “I think this is just, you know, for election purposes.” 

Hamilton echoed that statement, calling Harris’ comments Thursday “insincere.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign repeatedly for comment but did not receive a response.

An illegal immigrant who pleaded guilty to causing a crash that killed a man in Colorado is facing a maximum of a year in jail when he is sentenced Friday, according to local reports.

Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza was charged with misdemeanor traffic violations, including one count of careless driving resulting in death, and he pleaded guilty in July, 9News reported. He faces one year in jail and some fines as a result when sentenced.

Fox reported earlier this year that Cruz-Mendoza was hauling a load of steel pipe on Hwy 285 when he lost control of the semi, sending it rolling onto its side as it veered off the road.

SEMI DRIVER IN DEADLY COLORADO HIGHWAY CRASH IS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO WAS DEPORTED FROM US MULTIPLE TIMES: ICE

A load of pipe and angle iron spilled out of the semi and onto five other vehicles. One person was killed, and another was seriously injured, authorities said. A spokesperson for ICE confirmed that Cruz-Mendoza has a long history of removal to Mexico, stretching back more than two decades. ICE first became aware of Cruz-Mendoza in April 2002 when he was arrested on local charges in Jefferson County, Oregon, the ICE spokesperson said. 

An immigration judge ordered Cruz-Mendoza removed to Mexico on May 29, 2002. Since then, he has been removed from the U.S. or voluntarily returned to Mexico 16 times, ICE said. 

The widow of Scott Miller, the man killed in the crash, took aim at the district attorney for not bringing more charges.

“I’m mad that I’m not going to get justice for my husband, mad because … the most this man can get is a year for murdering my husband because the DA refused to charge him with more charges,” Deann Miller told 9News. 

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“It makes me feel like they didn’t do their job,” Miller said. “They’re not doing their job. Who else is going to get these rogue truck drivers and these rogue trucking companies off the road if not the people we put in charge to make us safe?”

9News reported that the DA’s office was surprised that Cruz-Mendoza pleaded guilty in his arraignment on the misdemeanor, preventing further charges. The Jefferson County DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital but told 9News that they are looking into the trucking company involved in the crash.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report. 

Former President Trump did something breathtakingly cynical, certainly immoral and probably illegal the other day.

In other words, it was Monday.

Trump used an appearance on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, a resting place for many who honorably served their country, to make a campaign video.

Trump was ostensibly at Arlington to commemorate the third anniversary of the killing of 13 American service members by a suicide bomber during the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan. He said the solidiers’ family members, some of whom disparaged President Biden at the Republican National Convention, invited him.

I have no doubt that’s true. But even the grieving families of fallen soldiers do not have a right to trash Arlington‘s protocols.

The Army, which oversees the cemetery, forbids any sort of political activities on the grounds. It is, as the Trump campaign was informed, against federal law and Defense Department policy. The Washington Post reported that Pentagon officials were “deeply concerned” that Trump would turn the visit into a campaign stop but also wanted to accommodate him.

During the visit, a cemetery official tried to enforce the rules against outside cameras in Section 60, the area devoted chiefly to soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Trump staffers physically pushed her out of the way, according to news reports.

The official declined to press charges because she feared retaliation from Trump supporters, according to an Army statement. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung promptly slimed her as “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

Trump had smiled broadly and given a jarring thumbs-up as he stood at the grave of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, one of those killed in the bombing. He wasn’t there just to pay his respects; he was there to exploit the tragedy that occurred at Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate in 2021 by blaming it on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has soared in recent polls.

The frenzied withdrawal and terrible loss of life occurred on Biden’s watch — as did the abandonment of at least 78,000 Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and continue to live there precariously.

@robinkabcarian