Harris mum on supporting new "Dreamers" protections

Vice President Harris is backing away from her past promise to use presidential power to unilaterally give a path to citizenship to 2 million "Dreamers" — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Why it matters: It's part of a pattern in which Harris and her team have changed her positions or declined to say whether she still supports some of the progressive policies she ran on during her presidential campaign in 2019.

• Harris has moved to the center on immigration in recent months and embraced a get-tough stance on border security while casting herself as a former "border state prosecutor."
• She also has said she no longer supports other policies including a ban on fracking, which she backed as a California senator and 2020 presidential candidate.

Zoom in: Harris pledged in 2019 to take four executive actions as president that would give 2 million Dreamers a path to citizenship and shield more than 6 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

• "Every day in the life of a Dreamer who fears deportation is a long day," Harris said then. "Dreamers cannot afford to sit around and wait for Congress to get its act together. Their lives are on the line."
• Asked this week whether she'd take those same executive actions, her campaign declined to answer.
• Spokesperson Ian Sams said: "The vice president has fought for Dreamers throughout her career and is proud of the actions taken under her and President Biden to expand protections for them, including the executive action President Biden took this year, which she supported."

State of play: Harris proposed putting Dreamers on a path to a green card by, among other things, granting work authorizations, using certain parole powers and waiving rules barring people from returning to the U.S. if they leave to apply for a green card in a U.S. consulate abroad.

• In June, Biden used the same "parole in place" power to try to give people married to U.S. citizens a path to citizenship if they had been in the country for 10 years. It's being challenged in court.

In 2019, Harris also vowed to expand "deferred action" programs that protect select groups of undocumented immigrants from deportation and prioritize deporting other groups such as those who've committed crimes.

• Her campaign estimated the plan would protect more than 6 million people from deportation, such as the parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
• In interviews at the time, Harris stressed that the executive actions weren't a substitute for necessary congressional action.

Asked if she had time for a brief interview to discuss her Dreamers policy, Harris' campaign declined to make her available.

• The campaign also declined to comment on whether Harris supported using "parole in place" for any other group of undocumented immigrants.
• Spokesperson Ian Sams told Axios: "As president, she'll continue to protect Dreamers while also pushing the bipartisan border deal that will dramatically strengthen border security."

Reality check: The conservative makeup of the courts could make Harris' proposed executive orders difficult to put into effect.

• Legal challenges to "deferred action" authorities are ongoing, although the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to get rid of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in 2020.

Zoom out: As vice president, Harris hasn't said much about her views while staying in lock-step with Biden. This year, Biden and Harris have embraced hawkish immigration policies they previously opposed.

• Biden's immigration team was plagued with infighting and responsibility dodging as the border problem grew over three years, as Axios has reported.
• This year, Biden embraced a Senate border bill that would continue building the border wall and significantly restrict asylum — policies that many progressives opposed.
• Former President Trump opposed the bill, effectively killing its chance of passage.