Victim of violent crime by illegal immigrant criticizes “lenient” policy towards crime: “One too many”

Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday highlighted the impact some “softened crime” policies have had on the American people – from brutal street attacks to an ongoing fentanyl epidemic.

“Journalists and politicians like to repeat the statistic that immigrants commit fewer crimes than Americans,” Amanda Kiefer, a victim of an attack by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, told the assembled members of Congress.

“Even if they are not tampered with, I think that is irrelevant,” Kiefer said. “If we let more criminals in, that is one too many. We already have enough criminals in this country and we are doing very little to stop them from committing more crimes.”

Kiefer was out with a group of friends in 2008 when 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre stole her purse and then tried to run her over with a waiting SUV, causing her to fracture her skull.

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Izaguirre was in the country illegally and had been arrested on drug charges several months before the attack, but he was free because then-District Attorney Kamala Harris had created a program that allowed nonviolent offenders to avoid prison time by completing job training and having their criminal records expunged.

Kiefer's testimony Wednesday at the hearing on “The Consequences of a Soft-Touch Crime Policy” was a harsh blow to the programs that are putting people like Izaguirre back on the streets. He accused the politicians responsible for them of being “committed to the Marxist principle that criminals are merely victims of capitalism and that a job or a handout will somehow eliminate their propensity for violent crime.”

“No bail, late sentencing and leniency driven by identity politics put violent people back on the streets where they harm others,” Kiefer said. “There is no fear of getting caught and no reason to stop committing crimes.”

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“In the summer of 2020, our vice president called for defunding the police and supporting a bail fund to get violent repeat offenders out of prison: many of them went on to commit horrific crimes.”

Kiefer insisted that many victims of violent crimes could have been spared and expressed concerns about “the backlog in the delivery of sex crime kits” and “our porous border.”

Representative Jerry Nadler in the House of Representatives, January 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“This is a gut punch,” Kiefer said. “It's unfair. It's heartbreaking and Americans need to stop putting up with this. No one is taking responsibility for failing to keep the American people safe.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the committee's ranking member, argued that it was “important to hear the views of crime victims and other concerned parties,” but claimed that Wednesday's hearing “was in no way intended to obscure the purpose of this hearing … to attack the growing popularity of Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”

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Nadler sought to distance Kiefer's suffering from a broader indictment of similar policies and programs.

“Of course, no crime prevention or reform strategy is perfect, and there will always be individuals who slip through the net and continue to break the law,” Nadler said. “That's what happened to the individual who snatched Ms. Kiefer's purse in 2008 while he was participating in the Back on Track program in San Francisco.”

Rep. Andy Biggs speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill on July 31, 2023.

“When then-District Attorney Harris discovered that the program had mistakenly admitted undocumented immigrants who were not eligible to work in the United States, she immediately closed the loophole,” Nadler said.

Nadler also came under fire after he closed his eyes and bowed his head during testimony before Congress on Tuesday about the impact of migrant crime on victims' families, sparking accusations that leading Democrats were not taking the issue seriously and were being disrespectful to those in mourning.

However, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said, “If Democrats succeed in their policy goals, the left-wing criminal justice policies of Manhattan, Chicago, Washington DC, Philadelphia, California and Minnesota will prevail across the country and actually impact the federal implementation of criminal laws.”

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“I hope these hearings serve as a wake-up call to Americans and demand that leaders abandon these policies that have made their communities less safe. And I hope they also remind Congress of our demand under federal law. Violent crime in Minnesota remains significantly elevated due to the ongoing impact of the unrest in the summer of 2020 and the refusal of prosecutors to hold criminals accountable,” Biggs said.

Michael Lee of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.