If you still think Democratic leadership ran a tight border and an honest money trail, look at the record instead of the talking points.
CBP data show Southwest Border Patrol encounters jumped from about 400,000 in FY2020 to more than 1.6 million in FY2021 and peaked above 2.2 million in FY2022. They stayed above 1.5 million through FY2024. After policy changed again in 2025, encounters fell to about 237,500 — the lowest fiscal-year total since 1970. That swing is not a vibe. It is official encounter data.
Taxpayer money also went out at scale to groups handling migrants. FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program alone awarded hundreds of millions in FY2024 to cities and nonprofits for shelter, food, and related services... including large grants to New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego-area charities, and Arizona counties. HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement separately ramped up grants during the same period. That is public grant data, not a conspiracy theory. What is a fair question is whether those pipelines created a political incentive: more arrivals, more contracts, more clients, more pressure to keep the system loose.
Then comes voting. Federal law already bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Documented cases exist, but they are not “millions.” The live fight is over voter ID and proof of citizenship at registration. Photo ID is popular with most Americans, including a majority of Democrats in recent Pew polling, yet many Democratic leaders still fight the stricter versions. If citizenship is the line for a federal ballot, requiring proof of it should not be controversial
The pattern is simple: loose enforcement, large NGO and city contracts, and resistance to ID rules that would make it harder for ineligible people to get on the rolls. Call it incompetence if you want. Call it a political machine if the incentives keep lining up the same way. Either way, the numbers are public. Watch the data, not the press release.
MAZE