Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a rising star in the Democratic Party from Texas, made waves at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival on March 8 with a controversial statement about illegal immigration. In a viral video that quickly gained traction online, Crockett argued that Americans need illegal immigrants to fill the jobs that the college-educated population refuses to take.
Speaking to the crowd at SXSW, Crockett boldly stated that while parents may send their children to college with hopes of bettering their lives, they don’t expect them to end up working manual labor jobs like picking crops or cleaning hotel rooms. The implication was clear: illegal immigrants are filling these roles because, according to Crockett, no one else will.
“How many of you are sending your kids to college?” Crockett asked the crowd. When no one responded, she pushed further, “How many of you are sending your kids to college to go and work on the farms?” After another silence, Crockett answered her own question, “Okay, so, guess who is working the farms so that you can afford your food? So that you can have food.”
The congresswoman went on to question whether college-educated Americans are really sending their children to college to work in the hospitality industry, or to clean hotel rooms and make beds. She continued, “How many of you are planning to send your kids to college so that they can then go and build these houses?” The message was clear: according to Crockett, illegal immigrants are the backbone of an economy that relies on services no one else seems willing to provide.
Crockett’s defense of illegal immigration didn’t stop there. She argued that these workers “pay into taxes” without being able to benefit from programs like Social Security, presenting them as an essential, yet often vilified, part of American society. “To have people going out disparaging them and targeting them, that is not what makes us great,” she concluded, calling out those who oppose illegal immigration.
This rhetoric has been echoed by several other prominent Democrats in recent years. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York suggested last year that “many illegal immigrants” were necessary for our agriculture industry, or else “our vegetables would rot in the ground.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida warned that similar anti-illegal immigration laws could cause vegetables to “rot” in her state. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also claimed that farmers “need” illegal immigrants to pick crops in Florida.
Crockett’s comments are part of a growing narrative among the left, one that seeks to normalize illegal immigration by framing it as an economic necessity. However, this rhetoric conveniently ignores the rule of law and the rights of American citizens. By downplaying the illegality of immigration, Crockett and other Democrats are sending the message that illegal activity is acceptable as long as it benefits the economy.
This narrative has caused a stir, especially considering Crockett’s previous remarks last week, where she claimed that entering the U.S. illegally was “not a crime,” despite the fact that federal law explicitly classifies it as a misdemeanor punishable by fines or jail time.
As America faces an ongoing immigration crisis, the argument that illegal immigrants are indispensable to the workforce is being used as a justification for lax immigration policies. However, conservatives argue that this undermines the rule of law and encourages illegal behavior, which ultimately harms American citizens who are left to foot the bill for services and social programs they were never meant to support.
In the midst of this debate, it’s clear that the Democrat’s agenda on immigration is focused on offering solutions that favor illegal immigrants, at the expense of legal citizens who believe in respecting the laws of the land.
