Former President Donald Trump won a historic victory in the 2024 Iowa caucuses, crushing his nearest competitor by 30 points. One issue explains Trump’s big win.
To the surprise of many political observers, the top issue for Iowa’s caucus-goers was not the economy or inflation, but immigration. It’s really not surprising when 65% of Americans now look at the southern border and see not just a crisis but an invasion.
Border security and commonsense immigration reform were critical themes of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and they were central elements of President Trump’s America First policy agenda.
His bold stance on building a border wall and stopping immigration from nations infested with radical Islamic terrorism may have distressed liberal media pundits and establishment politicians, like Nikki Haley. But millions of concerned Americans cheered.
Sadly, President Joe Biden went out of his way to undo everything Donald Trump did to secure our borders. On his first day in office, Biden stopped construction of the border wall. He has since taken more than 60 additional executive actions to gut enforcement of our immigration laws.
Joe Biden likes to say that our immigration system is “broken.” But he is the one who broke it with his open borders policies.
Because Biden campaigned on a promise to end deportations, illegal immigration set a record in 2021. Illegal immigration hit another record in 2022. That record was shattered in 2023. And the results of Biden’s open borders policies have been catastrophic.
Illegal drugs and deadly fentanyl, much of it entering from our southern border, are killing more than 100,000 Americans year after year. Every day, nearly 300 American mothers and fathers bury a child poisoned by illegal drugs. Few in Washington seem to care.
Under Joe Biden’s open border policies, nearly 10 million illegal aliens have crossed our border, and they’re not all coming “for a better life.” Tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens and hundreds of suspected terrorists have been caught at the border. And that’s just the ones we know about.
A record number of Chinese, more than 24,000, crossed the southern border last year. Are our enemies sending soldiers and saboteurs across the border disguised as “undocumented noncitizens”? We would be fools to assume they are not.
There are simply too many stories like Jamiel Shaw’s, Melissa Powell’s and Sonia Argentina Guzman’s that never should have happened. President Joe Biden, “Border Czar” Kamala Harris, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and the advocates of open borders have the blood of innocent Americans on their hands.
Border security is national security.
To call attention to this crisis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started transporting illegal aliens to left-wing “sanctuary cities.” It wasn’t long before the liberal mayors of those cities started begging for help and issuing emergency declarations. (Here and here.)
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams said illegal immigration would “destroy” New York City, and he warned of 20% cuts to the city’s budget. The Democrat mayor of Denver also warned of drastic budget cuts to cover the exploding costs of providing services to illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, schools and services meant for our children and our veterans were taken away and given to illegal aliens. The Democrat governor of Massachusetts wants residents to open up their homes to illegal aliens.
Incredibly, there are some who claim that illegal immigration imposes no serious burdens on taxpayers and, in fact, is even a net positive. That just doesn’t pass the straight face test, especially as Democrat Big City mayors are demanding $5 billion to help cover the costs of illegal aliens in their cities.
The people coming across the border are not doctors, computer programmers or hedge fund managers. They are low-skilled, under-educated individuals who consume tremendous amounts of public services.
Nearly 60% of illegal immigrant households are on some form of welfare. American taxpayers spend approximately $80 billion a year educating non-English speaking students. Community hospitals are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the costs of treating illegal aliens. (Here and here.)
And the evidence is overwhelming that high levels of immigration – legal and illegal – suppresses the wages of American workers, especially minority workers, and increases housing costs.
Where is the “compassion” for hard-working American taxpayers?
Yet no matter how low Joe Biden’s approval ratings fall, he and the Democrat Party are all in on open borders. Why? Because the left wants to change the population of the United States in the belief that foreign nationals are more sympathetic to the left’s desire to “fundamentally transform America.”
If conservatives say this, progressives will insist it is a conspiracy theory. Some call it “the great replacement.” But Democrats celebrate America’s changing demography because they see it as a source of political power.
And if anyone doubts the left’s commitment to open borders, just look at what Joe Biden has allowed over the past three years. You can also take Rep. Jerry Nadler at his word.
During a recent hearing on the costs of illegal immigration, Nadler insisted that we needed even more illegal aliens, saying:
“We need immigrants in this country… Our vegetables would rot in the ground if they weren’t being picked by many immigrants — many illegal immigrants. The fact is, the birth rate in this country is way below replacement level, which means our population is going to start shrinking. The ratio of people on Social Security and Medicare is going to increase relative to the number of people supporting them.”
Yes, Democrats are replacing our population through abortion on demand and open borders.
We could address our shrinking population through policies that limit abortion and promote marriage and family development, like expanding the child tax credit. But the abortion-obsessed left would rather open the borders and bring in more people who will make America more like the rest of the world, no matter the costs to the safety and well-being of American citizens.
Gary L. Bauer, former chief domestic policy adviser to President Reagan and a Trump-appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, serves as president of American Values, chairman of Campaign for Working Families PAC, and senior vice president of public policy for the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
