Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff donated to a progressive legal group last year that pushed to defund the police, and wants to make Washington DC a permanent "sanctuary city" for illegals, the Washington Examiner reports, citing a copy of their joint tax return.
Harris and Emhoff donated $1,000 to Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit that works on housing law and represents low-income clients in multiple areas. The pair also donated $1,000 to the nonprofit in 2021, according to the report.
News of the donations, which have not been reported on until now, comes as Harris faces scrutiny on the 2024 campaign trail over her support in 2020 for defunding the police and her handling of the border crisis. Harris has reversed course on a variety of her left-wing policy positions after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. But the vice president’s willingness to fund Legal Aid DC as recently as 2023 could raise questions about her ties to controversial progressive activists — including after Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who has been widely criticized over his response to the 2020 riots in Minnesota, as her running mate. -Washington Examiner.
Legal Aid DC was founded in 1932, and brands itself as "the district’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization" helping to "make justice real in individual and systemic ways."
In 2020, Legal Aid DC published a statement in the wake of George Floyd's death noting that it "stands in solidarity with those speaking out, demonstrating, and demanding a country and society that will treat every one of its residents with dignity and respect."
Days later, the group's housing law attorney Amanda Korber was quoted in an article pushing for fewer police officers in DC. Legal Aid DC shared the article on social media, writing "As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we
are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any
solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC."
As Legal Aid's Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC https://t.co/EX73qgZGmM
— Legal Aid DC (@LegalAidDC) June 10, 2020
As the Examiner notes further, Legal Aid DC shared an article in 2021 glorifying BLM, and amplifying a quote by Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison declaring "I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle."
Of note, Ellison - the son of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, helped lead the charge in 2020 to "dismantle" the Minneapolis Police Department.
Legal Aid DC also supported a since-approved law in DC that to make it a "permanent" sanctuary city - legislation which restricts cooperation between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local agencies. Legal Aid's Adam Jacobs said aat the time that the law "could lift some of the terror our immigrant neighbors and their families have faced for many years."
"It also restricts the city’s prisons from functioning as immigration detention centers and amends a loophole used by ICE and the U.S. Marshals to detain immigrants outside of D.C. Superior Court," reported NBC4 Washington in 2020 upon the City Council's approval of a permanent version of the then-temporary law.
Meanwhile,
Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), has supported similar
"sanctuary state" policies in the past, as well as a law allowing
illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license.
Dangerously liberal Kamala Harris and Tim Walz support “sanctuary” cities that protect criminal illegal aliens pic.twitter.com/isKk8pgbbk
— GOP (@GOP) August 6, 2024
Tim Walz 🤝 Driver's Licenses For Illegals
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 6, 2024
Weak. Failed. Dangerously Liberal. Just like Kamala. pic.twitter.com/kuPSGpfjVB
Meanwhile, Legal Aid DC also submitted testimony in 2023 in support of a bill to "create a reparations task force and fund to address the impacts of slavery and institutional racism in Washington, D.C.," according to documents.
The organization's policy counsel, Jen Jenkins, told the DC City Counsel that it's essential for the district "to acknowledge that slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism have left deep scars in D.C. and to begin rectifying those impacts for black D.C. residents through enacting this bill."
Also, Walz's wife is 'weird'...
Here is a bizarre clip from an interview with Gwen Walz stating that she left her windows open during the Minneapolis Riots so she could smell the burning tires.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 6, 2024
Her daughter also coordinated with rioters to let them know that the National Guard would not be activated one night. pic.twitter.com/ityW100Z4y
