Fact-checking: Laura Loomer accuses Kamala Harris' mother of lying on immigration file, is it true?

Ever since Kamala Harris joined the presidential race, Donald Trump has been on high alert. His usual strategy of attacking his opponents with personal remarks is being questioned by people in his own party, and his own niece has said that he is 'terrified' of Harris.

Given the situation, he and his allies have been doing what they can to dissuade the public from siding with Harris. Laura Loomer, an avid Trump supporter who is known to be a conspiracy theorist, recently shared documents that have created quite the buzz online.

Laura Loomer's controversial post

She posted one of Kamala Harris' mother's immigration forms from files that were published in 2020. On it, Shyamala Gopalan stated that she had only one child. Loomer highlighted the date of the document, August 21, 1967, and accuses the now-deceased woman of lying.

She claims that Gopalan had two children by that date, Kamala who was born on 20 October, 1964, and her sister Maya who was born on 30 January, 1967. She wrote on X:

Why did Shyamala lie on the official immigration forms and state that she had only one child when she had two?

Moreover, Loomer insinuates that if Harris' mother did lie, it could have serious consequences for the presidential candidate. She adds:

The recently surfaced immigration documents relating to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the Vice President's mother, reveal serious issues that could lead to the disqualification of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate.

While she is right that the Harris sisters were both born before 21 August, 1967, Loomer's claims have been swiftly discredited as she skipped out on one important detail.

Loomer's post fact-checked

As reported by fact-checking website Snopes, the document is part of a 154-page PDF that contains all the immigration files related to Shyamala Gopalan.

The other pages clarify that the date on the page shared by Loomer is when Gopalan's petition 'to remain employed in the United States as a noncitizen worker' was approved by the government. The following pages show that the petition had actually been filed on 18 January, 1967, 12 days before Maya was born.

Thus, Gopalan correctly stated that she had only one child at the time of filing her application. Under Loomer's X post, readers have added further context in order to stop any fake news from spreading.

Moreover, Snopes clarifies that even if Harris' mother had lied it would not have led to her disqualification in the 2024 elections. They state:

Harris is a natural-born citizen of the United States, she is older than 35 and she has been a resident for well over 14 years. She is constitutionally eligible to serve as president regardless of what her mother put on an immigration form in 1967 (and, in this case, the number of children on the form was accurate when it was filled out).

Laura Loomer has been viewed over 1 million times and the post is still up on X.

This article has been adapted from Ohmymag DE.

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Sources used:

X: @LauraLoomer

Rawstory: Trump ally claims to have information that 'may lead to Kamala Harris' disqualification'

PDF of Shyamala Gopalan's documents (pages 32 & 33)

Snopes: Harris' Mom Lied on Immigration Form So She's Ineligible To Be President?