The Border Policy with Absolutely No Political Upside

American politics requires us to believe that politicians calculate electoral advantage while choosing committee assignments, tax credits, courthouse names and sandwich fillings, yet become innocent woodland creatures whenever immigration enters the conversation.

Apparently, nobody in Washington ever wondered whether legalizing millions of residents, helping them naturalize and encouraging their political participation might eventually affect politics. That possibility arrived uninvited, wearing a trench coat and false mustache.

Biden Did Enforce Immigration Law Eventually

President Joe Biden didn’t abolish immigration enforcement. ICE removed 271,484 people in fiscal year 2024, its highest annual total since 2015. Accuracy matters, especially when the argument is strong enough to survive contact with reality.

His administration also reversed major Trump policies, narrowed enforcement priorities, expanded parole programs, widened asylum access and proposed eventual citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act offered qualifying immigrants temporary status, permanent residence after five years and citizenship three years later. That’s an eight-year path from unlawful presence to possible voting eligibility.

Perhaps nobody noticed where the path ended. Washington planners are famous for constructing highways without discussing destinations.

The Administration Explicitly Promoted Naturalization and Political Participation

Executive Order 14012 directed the federal government to remove barriers to naturalization and promote the full participation of new Americans in democracy. USCIS later offered organizations up to $10 million to support naturalization and civic integration.

Those programs weren’t inherently improper. Naturalization is lawful, and civic participation is healthy.

The insult to everyone’s intelligence comes when officials promote legalization, citizenship and democratic participation, then recoil theatrically when someone mentions elections.

The Future Constituency Is Already a Present Constituency

In 2022, roughly 23.8 million naturalized citizens were eligible to vote. USCIS naturalized more than 2.6 million people during fiscal years 2022 through 2024, including 818,500 in 2024.

That doesn’t prove Biden’s primary motive was creating Democratic voters. Policies usually have several motives, particularly in Washington, where humanitarianism, ideology, bureaucracy, economics and electoral strategy can occupy the same conference room without exchanging business cards.

It does prove the political consequences were foreseeable.

Benefits Are Also Politics

Undocumented immigrants generally can’t receive many major federal benefits, including full federally funded Medicaid. States, however, can spend their own money.

California expanded full Medi-Cal coverage to income-qualified residents regardless of immigration status. Other assistance reaches households through schools, emergency services, housing programs, legal aid and benefits available to eligible children.

Politicians understand that valuable programs can generate loyalty among beneficiaries, families, advocacy groups and communities. Republicans understand this when discussing tax policy, agriculture or defense contracts. Democrats understand it too, although they occasionally pretend coalition building was discovered by accident behind a bus station.

There Was an Economic Argument Too

The Congressional Budget Office projected that increased immigration would add about $1.2 trillion in federal revenue and reduce federal deficits by roughly $900 billion between 2024 and 2034.

CBO also projected higher spending, local fiscal pressure and weaker short-term wage growth for some less-educated workers.

Immigration can expand the workforce and economic output. It can also strain housing, classrooms, hospitals, courts and municipal budgets.

Washington gets the economic projection. Local officials get the folding cots.

The Democratic Coalition Had Already Made Enforcement Morally Suspect

Parts of the progressive movement shifted from demanding immigration-enforcement reform to portraying enforcement itself as morally illegitimate.

“Abolish ICE” entered congressional politics. Democratic officials accused ICE of terrorizing communities and demanded major restrictions on its authority.

ICE requires oversight, discipline and prosecution when officers break the law. Yet describing an entire enforcement institution as monstrous changes public behavior. Lawful arrests become oppression. Obstruction becomes virtue. Threats become the unfortunate exuberance of someone with admirable intentions and terrible impulse control.

Slogans Have Customers

Most people chanting against ICE won’t attack anyone. Some people will.

Nine defendants were convicted in connection with a 2025 armed attack on a Texas ICE detention facility. Anti-ICE messages were found on ammunition after a separate Dallas facility shooting. Prosecutors have brought additional cases involving threats against officers and their families.

No evidence establishes that Democratic speeches caused those crimes. The evidence does establish that militant rhetoric can leave the rally and acquire equipment.

Weakening Enforcement Can Be Politically Useful

Delegitimizing ICE makes enforcement harder without requiring Congress to repeal immigration law.

It pressures local officials, discourages cooperation, damages morale and turns routine arrests into nationally televised morality plays. The law remains printed in federal statutes while its application becomes politically radioactive.

That’s an efficient arrangement for politicians who want permissive outcomes without accepting responsibility for openly dismantling enforcement.

Then Election Administration Entered the Argument

Noncitizens can’t legally vote in federal elections. Naturalized citizens can. U.S.-born children can vote upon adulthood. Apportionment counts total population, including noncitizens.

In July 2026, the Trump administration claimed a DHS review had identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered for federal elections. The methodology remained publicly insufficient, and analysts warned that database mismatches could include outdated records, recently naturalized citizens and identity errors.

The claim deserves investigation rather than automatic canonization or dismissal.

New Jersey Demonstrated the Machinery Can Fail

New Jersey disclosed that a software error had mistakenly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens during 2023 and 2024. Fewer than 400 registrations were associated with later ballots, although officials hadn’t established how many voters remained noncitizens when voting or acted knowingly.

Oregon found 56 erroneous registrations in a separate review, with no voting history reported.

These cases don’t prove coordinated mass fraud. They prove election systems are operated by governments using software, which should already have lowered everyone’s blood pressure and expectations.

The SAVE Act Revealed the Partisan Divide

The House passed the SAVE Act in 2025 by 220 votes to 208. Republicans supported documentary citizenship requirements almost unanimously. Democrats argued the rules could burden eligible citizens lacking passports or matching records.

Both concerns matter. Citizenship should be verified, and eligible voters shouldn’t be disenfranchised by bureaucratic mistakes.

The country needs an accurate, accessible and appealable verification system. Unfortunately, competence attracts fewer donations than panic.

Would Legalization Actually Produce Democratic Voters?

Naturalized voters supported Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by roughly 51 percent to 47 percent in 2024, a far narrower Democratic advantage than in 2020.

Immigrants aren’t programmable campaign accessories. They can change parties over taxes, crime, religion, schools, inflation or immigration itself.

The wager may succeed. It may also create voters who respond to Democratic generosity by voting Republican, which is the sort of ingratitude democracy permits.

The Strongest Indictment Requires No Conspiracy

No public document proves Biden adopted permissive immigration policies principally to manufacture Democratic voters.

The stronger argument is simpler.

His administration promoted legalization, naturalization, civic participation, humanitarian entry programs and public assistance while operating inside a coalition increasingly hostile to enforcement. Those policies had obvious political consequences.

But insisting no one noticed the wager is rather like entering a casino carrying dice, placing them on the table, blowing on them for luck and announcing that you came exclusively to admire the carpeting.

What a Serious Policy Would Look Like

Congress should set immigration levels according to labor needs, housing capacity and processing resources.

Asylum claims should receive rapid screening, competent hearings and final decisions within months. Failed claims should result in departure.

Any legalization program should require identity verification, background checks, tax compliance, English and civics standards and a firm eligibility date. It should be paired with credible enforcement against future unlawful entry.

Election registration should use multiple citizenship databases, immediate notice, accessible appeals, published error rates and auditable records.

ICE should operate under national standards for warrants, identification, body cameras, detention, force and disciplinary transparency.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Legalization and benefits can build political constituencies. Naturalization can alter elections. Population growth can change representation. Demonizing enforcement can weaken its practical legitimacy.

None of that proves a secret plot. It proves politicians can recognize incentives.

The Democratic establishment made a political wager while publicly insisting that the casino was a humanitarian conference center.

That wager may produce millions of grateful voters. It may also create a backlash among citizens who believe borders, benefits and elections should be administered with something resembling adult supervision.

Tammy’s Sources for Readers Still Capable of Surviving a Hyperlink

Biden Executive Order 14012
https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-restoring-faith-in-our-legal-immigration-systems-and-strengthening-integration-and-inclusion-efforts-for-new-americans/

U.S. Citizenship Act fact sheet
https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-sends-immigration-bill-to-congress-as-part-of-his-commitment-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/

Biden immigration executive-actions fact sheet
https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/02/fact-sheet-president-biden-outlines-steps-to-reform-our-immigration-system-by-keeping-families-together-addressing-the-root-causes-of-irregular-migration-and-streamlining-the-legal-immigration-syst/

ICE fiscal year 2024 annual report
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/eoy/iceAnnualReportFY2024.pdf

USCIS naturalization statistics
https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/naturalization-statistics

USCIS Citizenship and Integration Grant Program
https://www.uscis.gov/archive/fiscal-year-2024-citizenship-and-integration-grant-program

Pew Research Center on naturalized eligible voters
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/19/1-in-10-eligible-voters-in-the-u-s-are-naturalized-citizens/

Pew Research Center validated-voter analysis
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/behind-trumps-2024-victory-a-more-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-voter-coalition/

Congressional Budget Office immigration analysis
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60569

Federal Medicaid and CHIP eligibility rules
https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/enrollment-strategies/downloads/overview-of-eligibility-for-non-citizens-in-medicaid-and-chip.pdf

California Medi-Cal expansion
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/10/19/medi-cal-expansion-provided-286000-undocumented-californians-with-comprehensive-health-care/

Census Bureau congressional-apportionment information
https://www.census.gov/topics/public-sector/congressional-apportionment/about/faqs.html

D.C. noncitizen local-voting information
https://www.dcboe.org/getmedia/3b40f9c9-1c77-45ac-ba33-afa2d9c7550a/Non-citizen-DC-resident-voting-townhall_FINAL_042624

House vote on the SAVE Act
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025102

White House election-integrity materials
https://www.whitehouse.gov/election-integrity/

DHS election-registration letters
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/07/17/dhs-secretary-markwayne-mullin-sends-letters-secretaries-state-warning-about-non

FactCheck.org analysis
https://www.factcheck.org/2026/07/factchecking-trumps-election-security-speech/

New Jersey software-error statement
https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/2026/20260721a.shtml

New Jersey MVC registration-error information
https://www.nj.gov/MVCsystemerror2023/

Oregon Motor Voter review
https://www.oregon.gov/odot/DMV/docs/Voter%20Registration%20Status%20Report%2011-7-2024.pdf

DNC statement concerning ICE
https://democrats.org/senate-democrats-unified-in-demanding-common-sense-reforms-to-hold-ice-accountable/

Abolish ICE Act announcement
https://thanedar.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-shri-thanedar-introduces-the-abolish-ice-act

Melt ICE Act announcement
https://ramirez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ramirez-clarke-unveil-legislation-defund-ice-melt-ice-act

Justice Department convictions in the Prairieland attack
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/antifa-cell-members-convicted-prairieland-ice-detention-center-shooting

FBI statement concerning the Dallas shooting
https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/dallas/news/remarks-by-sac-joseph-rothrock-regarding-shooting-at-an-ice-facility-in-dallas

Justice Department ICE-officer threat case
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/brooklyn-man-charged-threatening-assault-and-murder-ice-officer-and-his-family

_____________________________

Tammy Pondsmith is a constitutional nuisance with a pocket-sized Bill of Rights, a sarcasm permit and a ceremonial air horn reserved for moments when Washington discovers that actions have consequences.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.