Daijiworld Magazine, Vol.12, Issue 4, September 2020

DAIJIWORLD Magazine | September 2020 7
WHAT ARE KAMALA HARRIS’ POLICY POSITIONS?
POLICING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Kamala Haris is a tough-on-crime Democrat
and trotted out her prosecutorial
credentials, but has
emphasized racial justice as
well. She has called for reforms
to address racism in
the criminal justice system.
She vowed to end private
prisons and mandatory minimums,
legalize marijuana,
and abolish the death penalty
and solitary confinement.
She also called for the end
of mass incarceration and undo “decades of failed
polices” that “created an unjust, unequal, and vastly
expansive system that disproportionately harms
communities of color and criminalizes individuals
just because they are poor.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
Harris has taken a firmer stance on addressing
climate change and environmental justice over the
past couple of years. In September 2019, Harris released
a climate plan in which she pledged a $10
trillion investment in a clean-energy transition
over the next ten years.
Last July, Harris and New York representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a plan for legislation
that would ensure that new environmental
bills are evaluated based on how they impact frontline
communities. And during her time as San Francisco
DA, Harris created an environmental-justice
unit within her office to address environmental
crimes that disproportionately affect poor communities
of color.
HEALTH CARE
She was one of the first prominent Democrats to
co-sponsor Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for
All legislation in 2017. In February 2019, she faced
criticism from moderates when she expressed her
support for a single-payer health-care plan that
would eliminate private insurance.
However, in July 2019, Harris unveiled a different
kind health-care platform, dubbed “Kamala
Care,” that would expand Medicare without ending
private insurance.
IMMIGRATION
On the campaign
trail, Harris, who is herself
is the daughter of
Jamaican and Indian
immigrants, said that
if elected she’d use her
executive powers to
reinstate and expand
Obama’s Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave
650,000 immigrants who came to the United States
as children the legal right to live and work in the
U.S.Harris also said she’d create a path to citizenship
for people protected under DACA, known as
“Dreamers.
EDUCATION
In the 2020 field, Harris proposed a Student-debt
plan, i.e. convoluted student-loan-forgiveness
plan that focused on helping entrepreneurs.
The plan proposed canceling up to $20,000
in student loans for borrowers who started a
business in a poor community and maintained
it for three years, and was roundly mocked for
being so limited. She also put forth a proposal to
raise teacher salaries to those of professionals
with similar education backgrounds, amounting
to a $13,500 raise on average.
WALL STREET AND SILICON VALLEY
As a senator, Harris has been critical of Silicon
Valley and has advocated for regulations, but she
stops short of calling for breaking up big tech companies.
Harris’s big tax proposal focused on tax relief
for the middle class rather than leveraging significantly
higher taxes on the wealthy.
During her presidential bid, Harris accepted
campaign contributions from an array of industries;
including finance, real estate, film, and TV (she
signed a pledge not to take money from oil and gas
companies). u