The new policy platform on the Harris campaign’s website comes 50 days after Biden exited the race.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign just released a new page on its website titled, “Issues,” which includes a 23-point policy platform that comes following weeks of criticism over its absence. 

Pressure has been building on the Harris campaign to put up a policy platform on its website, similar to how former President Donald Trump and others have done in the past. Upon its release this week, however, the platform was met with even more criticism over a lack of specifics.

In particular, one conservative immigration hawk took issue with the policy platform’s failure to clarify Harris’ stance on border wall funding, and whether she still views illegal border crossings as a civil enforcement issue — or rather, a criminal one.

“The Harris campaign finally has an ‘Issues’ page, but — on immigration, at least — there’s no there, there,” Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital. “She doesn’t say if she’d build more border barriers. She doesn’t say whether she still wants to decriminalize border-jumping. The statement just repeats the vacuous nonsense about the ‘bipartisan’ Senate border bill, which was drafted by the Biden-Harris DHS to codify its unlawful schemes to import more illegal aliens.”

Despite indicating a potential Harris-Walz administration would “bring back the bipartisan border security bill,” the new online policy platform did not indicate where Harris stands on funding additional border wall construction. Republicans have pointed to Harris’ public support for the failed bipartisan border bill as evidence she now backs a border wall after once calling it a “medieval vanity project.” 

But Harris campaign officials have said the border bill did not include any new money for border wall construction — it just extended the timeline to spend funds appropriated during Trump’s last year as president. The bill, however, has limits to ensure the money is spent on border barriers.

“Americans should believe Harris’ prior statements and current policies as Vice President,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday. “She has previously stated numerous times that she opposes a border wall. And on day one of the Biden-Harris Administration, they halted construction of the border wall system.”

Meanwhile, while running for president in 2019, Harris indicated during a nationally televised debate that she would not go after illegal border crossings. In a segment on ABC’s “The View,” she reiterated her stance in a riff with the late-Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan. 

“I would not make it a crime punishable by jail,” Harris said. “It should be a civil enforcement issue but not a criminal enforcement issue.”

“Harris repeatedly said during her CNN interview that her values have not changed,” Ries highlighted in her statement to Fox News Digital. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on the criticism from Krikorian and others about a lack of specifics in its new online policy platform, but did not receive a response.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called the new policy platform “a late-night, half-ass, wish list of policies.” 

“If Kamala really wanted to lower costs and secure the border — why did she cast the tie-breaking vote to cause inflation and support the war on our energy industry, and why is she allowing an invasion of illegal immigrants through our southern border as we speak?”

Not long after the Harris campaign’s “Issues” page was added to its website, social media users pointed out that the new web page contained metadata with language urging voters to reelect President Joe Biden, according to The New Republic. The Biden language was quickly removed, but not before leaving the impression that the Harris campaign copied and pasted from Biden’s documents, the outlet reported.

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A premier college in West Bengal’s Kolkata issued an apology on Wednesday after facing flak for denying admission to students from non-English medium schools. Loreto College, which is affiliated with University of Calcutta, was forced to withdraw its discriminatory admission policy after facing huge backlash on social media.

Admissions to undergraduate courses began in West Bengal on Saturday and the Catholic institution had announced online that applicants from Bengali and Hindi-medium schools were not welcome. Along with the list of selected students for 2023-24 undergraduate studies, a note mentioned that candidates from vernacular medium schools were not considered for admission as all instructions, examinations and books at the institution are in English.

Established in 1912 near south Kolkata’s Park Street area, the college’s policy read, “All lectures at Loreto College are in English. Hence, fluency in English is very essential for a student to be able to understand/follow classes. The student must also be able to express herself freely in English to enable her to do well in her written work/viva voce. This applies to all subjects except Hindi and Bengali. Examinations will have to be answered only in English. Our reputed Open Shelf Library has only English reference/text books and journals for all subjects other than Vernacular Bengali and Hindi. The medium of instruction in Loreto College is ONLY English.”

However, the statements barring students from vernacular medium schools prompted critics to term it ‘colonial hangover’. The original note said, “From previous experience we strongly recommend that candidates hailing from vernacular medium schools opt to study in institutions where the medium of instruction is bilingual. Students whose medium of instruction in Class XlI was vernacular have not been considered for admission.”

After the controversial policy invited a notice from the University of Calcutta seeking an explanation from its principal, the college tendered an unconditional apology addressing the ‘people of Bengal’ for the admission notice which ‘does not reflect its values’.

“Loreto College has a rich legacy of service and all-around education for over 100 years in Bengal. The recent admission policy notice does not reflect the values we cherish. It is an unintended error from our side. [We] unconditionally apologise to the people of Bengal and revoke the said admission policy notice with immediate effect. We recommit ourselves to serving all of Bengal as we have always done,” a statement posted by the women’s college on Tuesday read.

In a statement issued after CU called Loreto College’s principal Christine Coutinho for a discussion, the institution said the policy was implemented to ease the language-specific barriers faced by students hailing from vernacular medium backgrounds. Asserting the intention was not to discriminate, the college apologised for hurting the sentiments of students.

“It was observed by teachers that the students who come from schools where the medium of instruction is not English face difficulty in following the lectures. Hence, it was a practical consideration so that the students do not feel uncomfortable in the atmosphere,” the statement read.

Source: Hindustan Times

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