Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was not being truthful when she told an Iowa audience that she did not support a San Francisco policy from 2008 under which juvenile illegal immigrants got reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they were arrested, CNN reported.

Harris made the false statement Sunday on the Political Party Live podcast when asked how her view has changed about the policy of turning over juveniles who had not been convicted of crimes to ICE.

"That ended up being an unintended consequence of the policy and I did not support that consequence of the policy," Harris answered. "And that policy I believe has since changed because it was not the intended purpose of that policy."

About the policy

San Francisco, which had been a sanctuary city since 1989, adopted a policy in 2008 to require police to report to ICE any juvenile illegal immigrant who was arrested, regardless of whether that person was convicted. The policy was created by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is now governor of California.

Newsom enacted the policy after an illegal immigrant murdered three people after having previously been arrested as a minor and convicted of attempted robbery and assault, but having never been reported to ICE. Despite Harris's claim that she didn't support that part of the policy, CNN's Nathan McDermott and Andrew Kaczynski report otherwise:

Harris' comments mischaracterized her history on the policy. Reporting arrested undocumented juveniles to ICE was not an "unintended consequence" of the policy, it was the policy."



Harris' claim that the policy has since been changed "because it was not the intended purpose of that policy" is also inaccurate.



While Harris was correct that the policy has since been changed, it was the result of a change in administration.

A statement from a Harris spokesman to CNN did not directly address the senator's false statements:

"As Governor Newsom has said, the initial policy was intended to protect the sanctuary status of San Francisco, which Senator Harris has always supported and defended. We have said this policy should have been done differently, but as Senator, Harris is focused on protecting Dreamers, fighting this president's attempts to build a vanity project on the southern border, exercising more oversight of ICE, reforming our immigration system with a path to citizenship, and reuniting families separated by this administration. Those are her priorities should she be elected president."