Kamala Harris: "We will shut down the private detention centers and facilities"

The following is a transcript of the interview:

Ilia Calderón: Senator Harris, thank you for agreeing to this conversation with Univision. This week, immigrant detainees claim they were forced to unwanted hysterectomies in a detention center. How can this happen in the United States? And will you shut down these centers?

Kamala Harris: It's absolutely outrageous. And yes, Joe Biden and I, among the many things we will do, is we will shut down the private detention centers and facilities. I have visited these for-profit private detention facilities. They're awful. I have seen children in these detention facilities lined up as though they have committed crimes walking into barracks, single file. It is outrageous. And what has happened to these women, who deserve the dignity, they deserve the respect and they've been treated in such an abusive, violent way. You know, any woman who has to go through a hysterectomy and it's not what she wants. That is an abuse. And it's outrageous. And yes, we intend to shut down the private detention facilities. And we actually intended to do that before we learned of that case in Georgia. It's just the right thing to do. And, you know, I think about it. Private detention facilities mean that the business model is somebody is making money. A human being is making money off of the detention. The incarceration of other human beings. And it's just wrong.

TPS for Venezuelans

IC: Talking about immigration. TPS, which protects four hundred thousand immigrants, is in limbo right now and it could be canceled. The majority of these recipients are essential workers. What can you do or what will you do to make sure they can stay in the United States?

KH: Well, we need to win the election because it is clear that Donald Trump had it, it has been his policy to take away Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people who, by the way, have been here in some cases over 20 years. So, under a Biden-Harris administration, we will ensure that people are protected, that their status is protected. I also call on the Trump administration, as does Joe Biden, to give TPS to people who are seeking refuge from Venezuela, which the Trump administration has refused to do. But we are talking about people who deserve that we keep a promise to them. And under a Biden-Harris administration, we will do just that.

Covid-19 vaccine

IC: Our country is living in a very special circumstance due to the pandemic. And Hispanics and Blacks have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic. And look at this number, 78 percent of the children who died of COVID 19, are children of color, including Black, Hispanic and Indigenous. This is according to the CDC. Would you guarantee that a covid-19 vaccine will be available for these communities at a reasonable cost?

KH: Well, no. It will be free.

KH: So what Joe Biden and I intend and part of our plan and policy is that for testing, for treatment, and God willing, as soon as we have a safe and effective vaccine for vaccines, that all people will receive it for free. Including undocumented immigrants. Because this is just about what is the humane approach. This is about what is right and what is fair. And so that is our policy. So it's not just that it will be affordable. It will be free. But in addition to that, let's be clear that you look at Donald Trump and then you look at Joe Biden on the issue of health care because the pandemic is about a public health crisis. To your point, people are dying. Six million people have contracted it. Almost 200,000 people have died from it.

KH: Latinos are three times as likely to contract covid-19 and twice as likely to die from it. But look at where Donald Trump is compared to Joe Biden. Donald Trump knew back in January and then talked about it in February. He knew lethal and proportionate could kill people. He knew that it could be that it was airborne. But yet he told the American people it was a hoax. He minimized the seriousness of it. He purposely deceived the people. And now you see unnecessary suffering, unnecessarily loss of life, loss of jobs because the economy has been affected. And Donald Trump essentially lied to the people. Joe Biden intends on coming in and he and I will immediately have a national plan for testing, for contact tracing and for distribution of the vaccine and making sure that we are taking into account racial disparities, to your point, to make sure the populations most in need have the vaccine immediately based on their need.

IC: Senator, you were attorney general of California. And Attorney General Barr compared slavery to pandemic lockdown. What is the message that he is sending to the African descendant community?

KH: Attorney General Barr doesn't understand his job. He is supposed to be the lawyer of the people, but instead, he is the personal and political lawyer of Donald Trump. And so he says and does things that are not about the best interests of the people, not reflective of accurate history, but instead are part of how Donald Trump likes to think of the world and talk about the world. We have a president of the United States in Donald Trump, who has spent full time trying to sew hate and division among the people. Remember his campaign? He called Mexicans rapists and murderers. He has been hostile to immigrants in this country. And I say that as the daughter of a mother who arrived in the United States at the age of 19 by herself. And Donald Trump has denied the history of the country, which includes the history that we are a nation of immigrants. And so, Bill Barr, he just it's more of the same and that's why we need to elect them out of office. And why or encourage everyone to make sure they vote and vote early so that we can change the course of our country. Because right now we are on a very bad path where people are dying and we have a president who is trying to divide the people instead of unifying the people.

Battleground

Florida

IC: We are less than two months to the election. What is your plan to win Florida, a battleground state that Trump won in 2016?

KH: I was just in Florida last week in Miami and in the southern part of the state, and we intend to earn the vote, earn the vote, which means being present, which means talking about the issues people care about. In Florida, for example, we have so many Latinos, Hispanics, small businesses that have been devastated by the economic depression that we have because of the pandemic. And Joe Biden and I have an intention to support small businesses, including a hundred billion dollars of low-interest loans targeting minority-owned businesses and small businesses. We are looking at the fact that among small businesses, minority-owned businesses tend to have fewer employees than other small businesses. And so we're making sure that those small businesses with less than 50 employees receive treatment and receive direct support, knowing that they are part of the lifeblood of their communities. You know, our small businesses could be a restaurant, could be a bodega. They are not only business leaders, but they're also civic leaders. And we know that that's part of the support of the whole community.

IC: You mentioned that you just visited Florida. Why did it take so long?

KH: : I've only been on the ticket for a month, but I’ve been to Florida many times over the years. Meeting with community leaders and making sure that we are responsive. Florida is a very important state for so many reasons. But there is no question that the people of that state and every state deserve that we see their issues, that we hear them, and that we respond to them. And that's why my visit there was to reach out to leaders within various communities but to make sure that we are listening to folks and responding to their needs. And the small business initiative that we have is an example of that.

IC: You also have opponents in South Florida that call you and Biden socialist. And they say you will turn the U.S. into a Venezuela or Cuba, in part because you want to re-establish a relationship with a dictatorship. Are you afraid that this could cost you the Cuban-American vote in South Florida?

KH: It is the Trump Republicans who are who are suggesting this, and it is nonsense. It is absolutely untrue. And it's because they are scared, because they know that Donald Trump has been so hostile to immigrants. Again, it's a, for example, there is a huge Venezuelan population in Florida and he refuses to give them TPS. So they're trying to do this to create fear in people. But let's again look at the facts. Look at the fact that Donald Trump ended DACA. That Donald Trump put babies in cages and separated children from their parents at the border, that he has been openly hostile to people coming from these countries, including what happened in court, which is on the TPS for people from a variety of places, including Honduras and other countries, where he's trying to end their temporary protected status, their TPS status.

KH: So I urge people to look at the facts and to look at the fact that Joe Biden in his entire career has been about building up the economy, about supporting businesses, about supporting manufacturing in the United States, about supporting what we need to do to grow our economy. That is a very big part of our mission, and that will be very much a part of what we do when, God willing, we win. But we need everyone to vote.

Latinos and the DNC

IC: Senator, some Latinos felt that they were left out of the DNC convention, for example, Julián Castro was the only Democratic candidate that wasn't present at the convention and he's Latino. Why wasn't he there?

KH: I love Julián, we're friends. And he has been very active in the campaign and very welcomed in the campaign. Listen, I think that, again, if you want to look at conventions, let's look at the difference between the Republican convention and the Democratic convention and look at the fact that we are the ones who have been talking about as Democrats what we need to do to create a pathway towards citizenship. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and the Republicans have been blocking what we need to do to create that pathway. Look at where we are as Democrats and saying that we must keep our promise to our dreamers and resuscitate DACA where we are and saying there needs to be free treatment and testing regardless of immigration status where we are, and saying that we need to continue the Affordable Care Act that brought health care to millions of Latinos in our country. And Donald Trump is in court right now trying to get rid of it, including what we did around preexisting conditions. The Latino community, as many of our minority communities, have high rates of preexisting conditions that have been a barrier to them getting health care coverage. And the Affordable Care Act said, no, you have to cover these people. You have to cover people who have preexisting conditions. Donald Trump's trying to get rid of those protections right now in court.

Radical liberal?

IC: Senator Harris, President Donald Trump has referred to you in a tweet as a, quote "Super liberal, wack job", suggesting that if elected, Joe Biden would not complete the full term. And you will take over the White House. First, how do you respond to him? And second, is being vice president the starting point to become president? Is that in your plans?

KH: First of all, the president sounds like a child in a schoolyard calling people names. And so I have no response to what he said other than to characterize it appropriately. And I am very proud to be on this ticket and to do everything that Joe Biden and I know must be done to speak in the name of the people and to lead in the name of the people. Part of the problem we have now is a president who spends more time looking in the mirror and worrying about himself than he does the American people. And so we see that we are in a moment where we have a pandemic, where millions of people have contracted it and two hundred thousand people by this weekend are probably going to be dead because of it.

IC: Would you run for president?

KH: I have no intention of doing anything else right now except these next 46 days urging everyone to vote. There is so much about this election that is going to determine our future. And it's going to be about our children. It's going to be about our grandchildren. It's going to be about whether people of all races can live with dignity and be treated with dignity and respect in our country. And I feel so very strongly that the outcome of this election is going to make the difference in the lives of so many people and in particular those people who have been overlooked and have been left out. And Joe Biden and I have a strong and deep commitment to making sure that we lift up all people regardless of their race, regardless of the language their grandmother speaks. But based on what we know we need, which is a unified country, who cares about each other and respects the dignity of each other.

IC: When I told my daughter that you were the vice-presidential nominee, she asked me, is she the one that looks like us? Why is it important for a black woman to be in the White House as a president or vice president?

KH: Because we have to say to all of our daughters that you can do and be anything. We have to say to our daughters that you should never listen to, no, it can't be done. Never listen to that. Unless, of course, your parents tell you. But it's so important for our daughters and our sons to believe in themselves and to see what can be unburdened by what has been. It's so important. And it is for our daughters and our sons that I feel so committed to what we need to do in this election.

IC: Thank you so much Senator Harris for this conversation. I wish you the best. Thank you so much.

KH: Thank you so much.