Victim of illegal immigration crime under then-District Attorney Harris warns of ‘frightening’ consequences of lenient agenda toward crime

The victim of a violent attack by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, California, while Vice President Kamala Harris was district attorney is sounding the alarm about the presidential candidate's “ridiculous” crime agenda.

“Crime in San Francisco was so bad when I was there, and I've heard it's gotten even worse since then because of liberal policies… If it's going to be the same in the rest of the country under Kamala Harris as president, that's just scary. It really is,” Amanda Kiefer told “Fox & Friends First” on Thursday.

Kiefer was walking with a group of friends in a “nice neighborhood” in 2008 when 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre stole her purse and then tried to run her over with a waiting SUV, fracturing her skull.

VICTIM OF VIOLENT CRIME BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CRITICIZES “SOFT ON CRIME” POLICY: “ONE TOO MANY”

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 Harris had created a program that allowed nonviolent offenders to avoid prison time by completing job training and having their criminal records expunged.

“He was given the opportunity to avoid prison and train at taxpayer expense for jobs he could not legally hold,” Kiefer said.

Kiefer testified before a House committee on Wednesday about the impact of the border crisis on crime under the Biden-Harris administration. She expressed dissatisfaction with the way Democrats have rejected the GOP-led series of congressional hearings after a picture of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and an aide appearing disinterested during testimony the day before circulated online.

“There weren't many members of Congress there from the Democrat side. They think this is irrelevant. They're not interested in this … to be so callous, to not want to hear the stories of people who have lost loved ones to crime caused by an open border to unvetted intruders basically coming into this country … It just shows exactly how they think,” she said.

Kiefer's testimony at the hearing, “The Consequences of a Soft-Touch Crime Policy,” was a harsh blow to the programs that brought people like Izaguirre back to the streets and to the left's “commitment 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.”

“This is a gut punch,” she added. “This is unfair. This is heartbreaking, and Americans must stop taking this lying down. No one is taking responsibility for their failure to keep the American people safe.”

Nadler, 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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris' tenure as San Francisco District Attorney is under scrutiny. Screenshot from “Fox & Friends First” from September 12, 2024

The situation was tense at Tuesday's hearing when Texas Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar accused Republicans of playing politics with the families of migrants who had been victims of crime.

“I think what frustrates me most as a member of Congress is what is happening today in this committee hearing, where we have colleagues exploiting people's suffering for political purposes,” Escobar said.

April Aguirre, a victim advocate who also testified at the hearing, called Escobar's remark an “insulting” insinuation.

“You've made some very sweeping statements that are insulting to these people. They've lost loved ones, they've lost children, and we want to see a difference,” Aguirre explained. “We may not understand everything that's going on, but I assure you that we are not being abused in any way.”

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Peter Aitken of Fox News contributed to this report