Start Date: February 16, 2026
In the world of politics a change of position held by a candidate or a party is often referred to as a “flip-flop.”
Times change, budgets change, opinions change. But the transition I am observing of late has been so sudden, intense, dramatic, and hyperbolic that I find myself thinking of a boomerang soaring outward, only to make a sharp turn and reverse course like a knife blade flying through the air.
I have to begin by stating that when I first heard of debates about policies regarding ILLEGAL immigration I thought I had misunderstood. Surely it was meant to be about changing policies, timelines, quotas, or requirements for LEGAL immigration. There is plenty of room for that. What sense is there in discussing anything else? Would we find ourself debating illegal theft, illegal assault, etc? That last question was meant to be sarcasm. Sadly, and tragically, it has come to fruition in the bastions of lawlessness that are most big cities.
But the trajectory of this issue is particularly intriguing.
So to borrow from Stephen Hawking let us visit A Brief History of Time, or of political agendas.
1. President Bill Clinton [D]
In 1995 during a State of the Union Address President Clinton stated
“ All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. “ [1]
“The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers“ [1]
“ ..we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” [1]
This was not a rogue opinion.
2. Senator Charles Schumer [D]
From June 2009 at a conference Mr. Schumer made his opinions clear.
“The first of these seven principles is that illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. When we use phrases like “undocumented workers,” we convey a message to the American people that their Government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose.” [2]
3. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [D]
From a 2014 interview
“We have to send a clear message,” Clinton said. “Just because your child gets across the border that doesn’t mean your child gets to stay. We don’t want to send a message that is contrary to our laws or will encourage more children …..” [3]
4. Barack Obama [D], Senator and then President
As far back as 2006 at the early stages of his single term as a senator, Barack Obama gave a speech before Congress wherein he stated
“ those who enter our country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked. Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws.“ [4]
Later in 2010 as President Mr.Obama gave an interview stating
“And often this argument is framed in moral terms: Why should we punish people who are just trying to earn a living? ….. “but I believe such an indiscriminate approach would be both unwise and unfair, ”
“this could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration. And it would also ignore the millions of people around the world who are waiting in line to come here legally”
“ our nation, like all nations, has the right and obligation to control its borders and set laws for residency and citizenship” [5].
President Obama’s commitment to his policies earned him the moniker “deporter in chief” for deporting millions of illegal immigrants [6].
He made it clear in his message to Central America
“ Do not send your children to the borders,” he said. “If they do make it, they’ll get sent back.” [7]
In an interview on Telemundo he made it clear that he would not halt deportations of parents of children brought here illegally [8].
He (wisely) built a child detention center, later ascribed to his successor as “cages for kids” to keep them safe until returned to their country of origin.
In 2015 President Obama named Thomas Homan of the HHS (one of the many now described as “Hitler” by the wing of the Democrat party designated as “progressive”) with the “Presidential Rank Award” to recognize exceptional service over an extended period of time. [9]
5. Senator Bernie Sanders [Independent , caucus with Democrats]
Senator Sanders was the longest holdout in opposing illegal immigration, and/or open borders, Mr. Sanders said in a 2015 interview
“Open borders […] that’s a Koch brothers proposal… That’s a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States… It would make everybody in America poorer —you’re doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don’t think there’s any country in the world which believes in that. If you believe in a nation state or in a country called the United States or UK or Denmark or any other country, you have an obligation in my view to do everything we can to help poor people. “ [10]
I don’t usually follow Mr. Sanders railings against capitalism, particularly as it has served him so well. But in this case I can imagine that the desire for cheap labor was a factor in some of the disregard of illegal border crossings. I will discuss that in specific in a follow-on piece about farm labor.
Sadly, Senator Sanders was eventually persuaded to entirely reverse his position, deny borders, and now support providing illegal immigrants with housing, food, and most costly of all, healthcare, driving up costs for all Americans and making things less and less accessible to the poor in our country.
So the Democrat party has en masse embraced what he spoke in fear of back in 2015. They are “doing away with the concept of a nation state”
Also his former notion that no country believes in that is incorrect. Much of the UK, France, Germany, and Sweden have already succumbed. Denmark is making some efforts to curb illegal immigration. But Spain is taking the step of legalizing over half a million illegal immigrants.
You may note that the last reference I provided in the decades long, really going back to the mid-20th century, Democrat party opposition to illegal immigration, was made in 2015. So what happened?
In 2015 NY developer, financier, Donald J. Trump rode down an elevator in Trump Towers to announce the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign. He had been a Democrat and had been a darling of media, business, and entertainment. But he was running in the Republican primary and he was making the issue of illegal immigration a signature focus.
There is a long history of parties disagreeing just to to oppose the other party. But I don’t think it has ever led to a policy whiplash as strong as this. When President Trump said to Nancy Pelosi, early in his first term, that he should have said he didn’t want a border wall he was sadly correct. She would have made it her party’s mission to build one.
You may be wondering why the deportation seems so messy this time. You weren’t even aware of the millions deported under Mr. Obama. Well that is simply the counterpoint to opposing the opposition.
President Obama is a Democrat, as well as being the first biracial president. Big city mayors are almost entirely Democrats. They weren’t about to oppose him in any way. So they cooperated fully, leaving no need for federal officers to extract criminal migrants.
The real travesty is that people, mostly white college elites, who are so uninformed or young to know they are being sold a scam, are now willing to kill or die for something the Democrat party never believed was best for the country’s working class, but now see as a way to maintain power.
I suppose that is what happens when you are hit in the head with a boomerang?
REFERENCES
[1] Clinton, William J., State of the Union Address, January 24, 1995, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-11
[2] Schumer, Chuck, Remarks by U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer , 6th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference, Migration Policy Institute, June 24, 2009, https://justfacts.votesmart.org/public-statement/435424/remarks-by-us-senator-charles-e-schumer-6th-annual-immigration-law-and-policy-conference-migration-policy-institute&speechType=1#:~:text=The%20first%20of%20these%20seven%20principles%20is,responding%20to%20future%20waves%20of%20illegal%20immigration
[3] Hughes, Dana, “Hillary Clinton Won’t Try Pot and 5 Other Surprising Revelations“ , CNN Town Hall with Christiane Amanpour, June18, 2014, https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/hillary-clinton-wont-try-pot-and-5-other-surprising-revelations
[4] Obama, Barack, Floor Statement on Immigration Reform, United States Congress, April 3, 2006, http://obamaspeeches.com/061-Immigration-Reform-Obama-Speech.htm#:~:text=When%20Congress%20last%20addressed%20this,enforcement%20of%20the%20immigration%20laws
[5] Obama, Barack, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” American University School of International Service in Washington, D.C., 2010, https://www.foxnews.com/media/2010-obama-clip-goes-viral-where-he-defends-deportations-even-those-just-trying-earn-living
[6] “U.S. Law Indifferent to Immigrants, Obama Era Deportations, The American Leader, 2016, https://theamericanleader.org/timeline-event/obama-era-deportations/
[7] Stephanopoulos, George, “Obama Warns Central Americans: ‘Do Not Send Your Children To The Borders”, ABC News, June 26, 2014
[8] “Obama won’t halt deportations for parents of kids brought to US illegally“ Telemundo, September 17, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp68QI_9r1s
[9] PRESIDENTIAL RANK AWARDS WINNERS, 2015, https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/presidential-rank-awards/2015/presidential-rank-awards-2015-full-list.pdf
[10] “Democrats Have Lost Their Way on Immigration”, February 5, 2018, https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/articles/democrats-lost-way-immigration/#:~:text=Democrats%20in%20their%20own%20words,our%20system%20of%20legal%20immigration