Vice President Kamala Harris, tasked by President Joe Biden with securing the border in 2021, protested against the deportation of illegal immigrants in 2018. At that Los Angeles parade where she chanted "down with deportation," she was accompanied by hate crime-hoaxter Jussie Smollett as well as her husband, Doug Emhoff and step-daughter Ella. 

"Down, down with deportation," chanted then-senator Harris, pumping her fist, "up, up with education!" After a few rounds, the crowd of protesters began chanting her name. 

The 2018 protest was part of the 33rd annual Martin Luther King, Jr. parade, for which Harris was the grand marshal. Other causes touted by protesters at the parade included Times Up, which was part of the Me Too movement to hold men accountable for workplace harassment, bad dates, and other scourges on modern women. The resurfaced footage was shared by Daily Mail.

After Harris landed as second-in-command in the White House under Biden, she made good on her promise and under her leadership, the US saw a 67 percent decline in deportations from the Trump era. Trump won his 2016 election on a promise to secure the border and build a wall.

During the 2024 campaign season, Trump has again promised border security after the Biden-Harris administration implemented a complete reversal of his border policies. Under the current leadership, over 2 million illegal immigrants have come into the US every year since 2021.

The Biden-Harris administration has used multiple programs to make this a reality, from their promise to allow entry to any unaccompanied minor, minors and their families when they are traveling together, parole programs, refugee programs, temporary protected status programs, allowing anyone to apply for asylum and giving them access to taxpayer funded benefit programs while they wait in the US for court dates years down the road.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has echoed Harris' sentiments against deportation, saying that he believes deporting persons who illegally enter the US is bad policy. Instead, his plan has been to let everyone in and sort it out later. Biden and Harris have made moves toward mass amnesty programs so that those who are in the country illegally can simply stay, specifically with a plan to allow illegal immigrant spouses to just stay in the US without going through a legal citizenship process.

Mayorkas' agency is responsible for the oversight of unaccompanied minor border crossers who enter the US to be matched with a sponsor. Those sponsors are not subjected to government vetting. Some 300,000 of those children are now unaccounted for. 

158 Democrats recently voted against a Congressional bill to deport illegal immigrants who were convicted of sex crimes. The bill passed anyway. 54 percent of Americans support mass deportations of illegal immigrants according to a new poll. 86 percent of Republicans support the plans, along with 58 percent of independents, and only 25 percent of Democrats. 39 percent said immigration is the top issue for them in this presidential election.