Democrats want open borders, most Americans don't
By: Michael Barone
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Who said this? "If you don't have any borders, you don't have a nation." The speaker went on, "Trump did a better job. I don't like Trump, but we should have a secure border. It ain't that hard to do. Biden didn't do it."
It was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in characteristic candor. If, as Milton Friedman argued, you can't have open borders and a generous welfare state, Sanders, as a self-described socialist, prefers the welfare state.
The facts at this point are not in much doubt. The Pew Research Institute, not an anti-immigration outfit, estimated that there were 10.2 million "unauthorized" immigrants (members of groups not approved for legal immigration) in the United States in 2019, the year before former President Joe Biden was elected, and 10.5 million in 2021, the year he took office.
That number, as Pew's Jeffrey Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad wrote, grew to 14 million in 2023, "the largest two-year increase in more than 30 years of our estimates."
The illegal population probably peaked at about 14.5 million in early 2024, when the Biden Democrats, who said they had no alternative to their open border policies without new legislation, suddenly decided they actually could clamp down using existing legislation.
Let's put that in a longer perspective. Pew estimated that the illegal immigration population increased from 3.5 million in 1990 to a peak of 12.2 million in 2007-2008, the years housing prices and financial markets crashed. Suddenly, net migration from Mexico turned negative, and the illegal population fell through attrition until Biden took office. Then it rose from 10.5 to 14.5 million.
That number has trended downward since President Donald Trump took office last January. Earlier this month, in a report for the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes illegal immigration and favors lower legal immigration, analysts Camarota and Karen Zeigler estimated, based on multiple government statistics, that the foreign-born population declined by 2.2 million since Trump was inaugurated in January. Presumably, almost all of this change can be attributed to illegal immigrants.
This provides some backing for the Trump Department of Homeland Security's claim that it removed 527,000 illegal immigrants and that 1.6 million "have voluntarily self-deported."
That's obviously an estimate, but it's not improbable. If 4 million additional illegal immigrants were incentivized to arrive in the first three-plus years of the Biden administration, as compared to a net decline in the 12 years from 2008 to 2020, it's plausible that 2 million were compelled or decided to leave due to the highly publicized and aggressive actions in 2025.
That's not an uncontroversial process, of course. Government is a blunt instrument, and no doubt ICE agents have wrongfully detained some genuine citizens and legal immigrants. Some people who have lived quietly and constructively, though illegally, for many years have had their lives overturned. There's an argument that Trump officials have acted too aggressively and in disregard of the limited rights that illegal immigrants have.
But if some of the moral opprobrium for the harm done belongs to the Trump administration for arguably enforcing the law too vigorously, some moral opprobrium is owed also to the Biden administration, which deliberately refused to enforce the law in a way that left millions of people vulnerable to severe disruption.
My guess is that the current policy will disincentivize illegal immigration long after Trump, as he has conceded this week, leaves office in January 2029. Who will want to make long-term plans that can be ruined by sudden deportation or hurried self-deportation?
Much of the drama around the Trump administration's enforcement of the law comes from opposition, sometimes forcible, of Democratic governors and mayors who promised, in the tradition of John C. Calhoun, to nullify federal law within their jurisdictions. And from self-starting liberals who use "ICE trackers" to violently impede the agency's operations.
These people perhaps see themselves in the position of Northern opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, who joined former Sen. William Seward in proclaiming, "There is a higher law." But what is the higher law here? Barring people from entering the U.S. is not thrusting them into slavery.
The nullifiers' legal position is similarly weak. In Arizona v. U.S., the Supreme Court in 2012 overturned parts of a state law that purported to strengthen immigration enforcement, saying federal law was controlling, even when officials were using discretion (as the government often does) to only partially enforce the statute. Much stronger is the argument that, under the Constitution's supremacy clause, the states lack the power to prevent federal agencies from enforcing federal law.
In his 2020 campaign, Biden did not promise to reverse a dozen years of policy and welcome in 4 million unauthorized immigrants. He did not argue that every person in the world has a right to move to the U.S. Yet he did those things, and most elected Democrats continue to support them. As those "in this house we believe" signs say, "no human being is illegal."
"Immigration is a blind spot where Democrats focus first on the needs of migrants rather than the needs of Americans," Democratic analyst Josh Barro wrote. Democrats need to "firmly say no and deny access to our country, even to people who stand to gain a lot by coming here — and part of saying 'no' requires having an effective government apparatus that deports people who are here without authorization."
Instead, blue state Democrats seem stuck in denial. They point to polls showing less insistence on reducing illegal immigration without realizing that, as Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini pointed out, "that may have something to do with the fact that illegal border crossings have plummeted to 0." As for dismay at Trump administration enforcement tactics, that's real, but, as Ruffini noted, voters of all education levels prefer "a party that's better at getting things done, even if its views are sometimes extreme."
This gets back, doesn't it, to Sanders's words: "If you don't have any borders, you don't have a nation."
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They don't want open borders, they'll tell you. They just don't want to stop anyone from coming in and refuse to deport any once they make it across.
US deportations under Biden surpass Trump's record
US deportations under Biden surpass Trump's 2019 record
Biden carried out the highest level of deportations since 2014, new report says | CNN Politics
I mean, I know you guys are so full of shit you have trouble seeing, but the blatant lies about what Democrats supposedly want is just moronic and laughable.
US deportations under Biden surpass Trump's 2019 record
Did you actually read that or just see the headline and figured it said what you are implying? As for the other headline it is, no doubt, just a rehash of the first one.
In 2019, Trump didn't have as many to choose from for deportation and still set a record, however Biden had millions to choose from and did it at the border in 2024 by turning away enough "asylum seekers" to make it look like he was doing something about immigration, it was after all an election year and illegal immigration was becoming a major issue for him and his party.
Imagine yourself coming to the border, knowing all you have to do is cross and get caught by border patrol, then claiming, as you were told to do, you're seeking "asylum" and with that statement the border patrol has been ordered to let you into the country. But now at the border you are caught and you claim like all others "I am seeking asylum" and the border patrol has now been ordered, by the Biden administration, a token few need to be deported and you find that you're one of the tokens.
Now, by the article sighted, Trump has deported by nearly ten fold what Biden did in 2024 and it hasn't even been one year yet.
I posted facts that disproved the claim being made. The facts show that Democrat administrations have been and do stop illegal border crossings and they do deport undocumented immigrants unlike the spurious claims made by Sean. Under Obama he was even called the deporter-in-chief by some, but all you ever hear from lying garbage brain bigoted conservatives is how Democrats want open borders and never deport anyone. It's total bullshit but clearly, we're not dealing with the sharpest knives in the drawer here, so it makes sense why some conservatives have trouble getting the truth through their thick skulls.
So why are you all crying about Trump's deportations? Oh wait...
I'm not. Do I think the Gestapo-like actions of recent ICE raids and the racial profiling take immigration enforcement too far and makes the Trump administration look like some authoritarian regime? Yes. But otherwise, I support ICE and the difficult job they have to do. I wish the border was secure with no undocumented immigrants coming in illegally and wish the even larger number of undocumented immigrants that are here from visa overstays would leave and go through the proper channels of legal immigration if they want to live here permanently. With that said, I think the number of legal immigrants we allow should be increased tenfold because there are millions who are hardworking people just looking to make a better life for their families. We know legal immigration is beneficial for America so why not support more of it? Instead, we get all the pushback from the xenophobes who see increased legal immigration as a threat to what they see as "their America". Even siblings of US citizens sometimes have to wait up to 15 years to legally immigrate right now, for those who just "get in line" it can be a 30 year wait. We need immigration reform which works toward increasing the number of legal immigrants we can properly vet and approve.
There are really just two paths right now. First would be continuing to try and deport 10 or 20 million people through a goon squad of masked kidnappers, a method that will bring people resisting into the streets and into the ICE faces for years, which would be a great calamity for our country, or have Congress negotiate a path to citizenship for all the non criminals who are here. We can stop the future, we cant redo the past. They are here and exporting all or even the majority of them is totally unrealistic.
I agree with many on the Right in that I don't love amnesty or amnesty-adjacent programs. However, at some point we have to deal with life as it is, not as we wish it to be.
I didn't specify an individual.
Then you go and cry about the operations contradicting your 1st sentence. THEN expect me to continue reading?
Nothing contradictory in my comment. I'm not complaining about the deportations of undocumented immigrants, I simply pointed out that the tactics being used are both unnecessary and cruel and actually do more harm than good when it comes to addressing the undocumented immigrant situation in America. Choosing to stop reading and refusing to even try to understand a different perspective is exactly why there is such a huge divide in America. As I said, I support the deportations of undocumented immigrants but that doesn't mean I support the tactics being used to do it. I support the highway patrol keeping speeders to a minimum keeping our highways safer, but I don't support the highway patrol dragging speeders out of their cars, beating them and hogtying them because they were caught going 15 miles over the speed limit.
No matter how you spin it, it's right there in plain English. Gaslighting may work on your friends...
They don't want open borders. Just like they don't want crime or poverty.
They're just don't oppose those things as much as they oppose the measures required to fix them.
Which Democrat has said they want open borders?
A Center for Immigration Studies report released today quantifies why Democrats support, or are indifferent to, open borders.
A name will do.
FLASHBACK: Biden Tells Migrants To 'Surge to the Border'
Seriously?...
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He encouraged asylum seekers to come and get a hearing. That’s not open borders.
A number of Democrats have acknowledged there was an open border crisis. Eric Adams, Henry Cuellar, John Fetterman, Kathy Hochul, and Ruben Gallego are among Democrats who called for Joe Biden to toughen border security.
Dick Durbin, Pramila Jayapal, Joaquín Castro, Michael Bennet, and Ruben Gallego are Congressional Democrats who have advocated for immigration reforms that would ease entry into the country, minimize detention at the border, expand and ease access to asylum, and provide more generous benefits for asylum seekers. Barack Obama's DACA was a retroactive open border policy that gave amnesty for illegal entry in the past.
Democrats tend to redefine 'illegal immigrant' to establish a de facto open border. Paroling asylum seekers into the US imparts a legal status that overcomes the label 'illegal immigrant' which is a de facto open border policy.
Not really. First of all, what are you supposed to do with someone who - as asylum seekers - presumably can’t go back to where they came from? Second, these people are given hearing dates, and - from what I read , at least - the vast majority of them actually show up for their hearings.
They could wait in Mexico and Canada for their asylum hearing court date. By paroling these people into the United States they are given a legal status that allows access to safety net benefits and, in some cases, work permits. On average, at least half of these parolees will be denied asylum in the US.
The generous use of parole is essentially providing a lot of people an all expenses paid vacation in the United States.
I think the percentage denied asylum is pretty high.
80% of asylum-seekers rejected, DHS official says
And this is under Biden, as this article was published in 2024. When you're denying 80% of asylum claims and deporting the applicants, I don't see how this can qualify as an "open border" policy. I don't think most people understand (or, frankly, spend much time even thinking about it) that the qualifications for asylum are rather limited. You don't get asylum just because your own country sucks in a general way.
Democrats seem to want open borders because they don’t want to do those jobs, I remember when any job was better than the humiliation of welfare, democrats have turned it into a lifestyle choice.
It’s all about power to the democrats. They think illegals, once or if they become legal will vote for them, and they gain seats in congress through higher census numbers. Party above country.
Republicans have been spreading this conspiracy theory for decades, but somehow it hasn’t resulted in millions of loyal Democratic voters. Instead, Republicans control every branch of the federal government. Isn’t it time to face facts and stop promulgating a paranoid theory that is obviously wrong?
It's always easier to get votes by painting your opponents as evil rather than inept.
Clearly, they are a party that just love lies as proven by their support for one of the most egregious prolific liars on the planet. These folk don't want truth, they want to have their ears tickled and believing their political opponents aren't "real" Americans or are somehow cheating in elections make the dumb fuck bigots feel better about themselves because they can then just dismiss any and all complaints from the left as not being from "real Americans" and thus not worth even considering.
Lol, yes, of course it is just democrats in red flyover states that won’t work in the fields. MAGA is out there slaving away, right?!
Actually they are, but fly over states tells me all i need to know.
You guys would probably accuse this guy of wanting open borders.
George W. Bush on Immigration
I agree with what he said. No where did he mention lying to the border patrol to get into the country as a legal way to immigrate. He said to do what is required to immigrate legally. Also, he didn't say illegally crossing the border as being accepted.
Who said people should lie to Border Patrol?
To truly be an "asylum seeker" the first border you cross is where you declare you are seeking asylum not the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. Do you believe people are actually seeking asylum from, of all places, Mexico?
Now all these "asylum seekers" moving north have just vanished, even from Mexico. Mexico, knowing who they are, won't let them come across their southern border.
If you were told to claim, but not actually, "seeking asylum" to get into the US, then you were lying.
Then I hope you see his fears coming to fruition in the current administration and the Republican Party, generally.