Trump Says Biden’s Border Policies Are a Conspiracy to Grab Power ‘For Generations’

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Greensboro Coliseum on March 2, 2024 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said March 2 that President Joe Biden’s open border policies amount to a conspiracy to flood the country with illegal aliens and, over time, expand the Democrat voter base in a bid to grab power “for generations.”

President Trump made the remarks during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, during which he escalated his criticism of President Biden and the border crisis, accusing the incumbent of waging a “conspiracy to overthrow” the United States by way of record-breaking levels of illegal immigration.

“Biden’s conduct on our border is by any definition a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America,” President Trump alleged. “He talks about democracy but he’s a danger to democracy.”

President Trump then suggested that the conspiracy is letting in throngs of illegal immigrants, then legalizing them by means of legislative reform and ultimately turning them into Democrat voters with the hopes of maintaining a grip on power, possibly for decades.

“Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters, and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations,” he said.

Similar arguments have been made by people who allege that Democrats are promoting illegal immigration to tip the electoral scales in their favor. Studies have shown that, when immigrants are naturalized and gain the right to vote, they are less likely to vote Republican than native voters.

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk recently made a similar argument, claiming that President Biden’s overarching strategy on the border is to increase the number of illegal immigrants, push for immigration reform that would grant many of them amnesty, and so expand the Democrat voter base to rule the country as a “one-party state.”

Mr. Musk said this was a “simple, yet effective” strategy to keep Democrats in power practically forever.

Republicans, and others, have accused the Biden administration of being intentionally lax on border security, including with the aim of letting in more illegal immigrants for political benefit.

President Biden and members of his administration have rejected this claim, accusing Republicans of playing politics with the border crisis and of cynically denying the administration the opportunity of meaningful immigration reform by legislative means.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the claim whether the Biden administration’s policies mean to bolster the ranks of Democrat voters.

‘Biden Migrant Crime’

On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, he proposed the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which quickly sparked uproar over provisions like pathways to citizenship for some 11 million illegal immigrants.

The measure was introduced in the House of Representatives but died with the end of the 117th Congress. It was revived in a somewhat modified form in May 2023 as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2023, which remains stuck in Committee.

Both prior and current versions of President Biden’s immigration reform bill propose pathways to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, including DREAMers and farm workers.

While legislative efforts on border security and immigration more generally remain stalled, record numbers of illegal immigrants have been pouring into the country.

President Biden and members of his administration have denied allegations that they back illegal border crossings, instead blaming a “broken” immigration system inherited from the Trump administration, along with factors like crime and corruption in countries of origin, as well as climate change.

At the rally, President Trump said that the problem of illegal immigration has become so bad that it has given rise to a new buzzword: “migrant crime.”

“Under Biden, we have a brand new category of crime. It’s called migrant crime,” he said. “Criminals going around having boxing matches with our police officers,” he added, presumably referring to the incident in which a group of illegal immigrants beat several police officers near New York’s Times Square.

He also recalled the recent case of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley brutally murdered by, as alleged, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.

“She was barbarically attacked while she was out on her morning run,” President Trump said.

“We have tough people coming in and you know that. They are coming in from jails and prisons,” the former president said.

“The category—migrant crime—we call it ‘Biden migrant crime,’” President Trump said, offering other examples of illegal immigrants committing crimes, while adding that the central question in the 2024 election is whether the “foreign armies Joe Biden has smuggled across our border will be allowed to stay or whether they will be told to get the hell out of here and go back home.”

President Trump’s rally came three days before Super Tuesday, with elections in 16 states, including North Carolina and Virginia, where President Trump was scheduled to hold a rally later Saturday.

The primaries will be the largest day of voting of the year ahead of November’s general election, which is shaping up as a likely rematch of 2020 between President Trump and President Biden.