Fact check: Did Kamala Harris’ mom lie on immigration form and render her ineligible for US President?

WASHINGTON, DC: A claim has surfaced of late suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris might be ineligible to run for the White House because her mother Shyamala Harris allegedly lied on an immigration form about the number of children she had.

The claim has been widely promoted by right-wing journalist Laura Loomer, but it is unfounded and incorrect.

False claim about Shyamala Harris

On Sunday, August 25, Laura Loomer posted on X (formerly Twitter) that newly "obtained" documents could undermine Harris' presidential bid.

"Recently obtained immigration documents obtained by @LoomerUnleashed referencing Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the mother of Vice President @KamalaHarris, reveal serious issues that may lead to Kamala Harris's disqualification as a presidential candidate," she wrote.

According to Loomer, a document from the United States Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service — form I-463 dated August 21, 1967 — supposedly showed that Shyamala Harris claimed to have only one child despite having two children by the specified date.

Loomer wondered why Shyamala would "lie" on an official immigration form - suggesting it could constitute immigration fraud.

Examining the facts of the claim about Kamala Harris

According to Snopes, a closer look reveals that the information Loomer presented is misleading. While the document she references is real, her interpretation is reportedly inaccurate. The document is part of a 154-page PDF containing redacted immigration files related to Shyamala Harris.

The file has been publicly available since 2020 and is hosted on the US Customs and Immigration Service website.

The details in the document are rather straightforward: August 21, 1967 marks the date on which the government approved Shyamala Harris’s petition to continue working in the United States as a noncitizen worker.

It's worth noting that her application was filed on January 17, 1967. At that time, Shyamala Harris indeed had only one child. Kamala Harris's younger sister Maya Lakshmi Harris was not born until January 30, 1967. Therefore, the claim that Shyamala Harris "lied" is false; her statement that she had one child was accurate when she submitted the form.

Loomer's post — which highlights the date of August 21, 1967, and the declaration of one child — failed to account for these facts.

Eligibility to serve as US President

This is not the first time such claims have surfaced. Snopes has debunked multiple allegations questioning Harris’ eligibility to run for president based on misinformation about her parents' immigration status. However, these claims are unfounded because they misunderstand the basic requirements for eligibility for the US presidency.

Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution clearly outlines the criteria for presidential eligibility: "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States."

Harris meets all these requirements. Born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, she is a natural-born citizen of the United States. She is over 35 years of age and has been a resident of the United States for well over 14 years. Therefore, her eligibility is unambiguous and secure under the Constitution.

Even if there were issues with Shyamala Harris's immigration documents (which there are not), they would not affect Kamala Harris's qualifications. This is because the constitutional requirements are based solely on the candidate’s own status, not their parents' paperwork or immigration status.

The evidence thus demonstrates that Kamala Harris's eligibility is beyond dispute, rendering the allegations against her "false."