Musk’s posts push migrant voting myth
Days before senators unveiled an immigration bill aimed at slowing illegal immigration, Elon Musk riffed on a common myth that Democrats want mass illegal immigration to gain more voters.
“Biden’s strategy is very simple: 1. Get as many illegals in the country as possible. 2. Legalize them to create a permanent majority — a one-party state,” Musk posted Feb. 2 on X. “That is why they are encouraging so much illegal immigration. Simple, yet effective.”
Over one week, Musk posted about immigration about two dozen times; another post said that “every deportation is a lost vote.” The morning after a trio of bipartisan senators unveiled the immigration bill, Musk wrote, “The long-term goal of the so-called ‘Border Security’ bill is enabling illegals to vote! It will do the total opposite of securing the border.”
Politifact ruling: False.
The path to U.S. citizenship, which is required for voting in federal elections, can take a decade, so the current influx of immigrants would not lead to a significant number of new voters for many years, if ever.
Even when immigrants become voting citizens, it doesn’t mean the United States will become a one-party nation.
Biden currently supports a Senate immigration bill that does not create a broad path to citizenship.
Discussion
Musk’s statement echoes a recent statement by former President Donald Trump, who said, “That’s why they are allowing these people to come in — people that don’t speak our language — they are signing them up to vote.” Politifact rated that Pants on Fire.
Such statements align with conspiracy theories about the “great replacement,” which claim white people of European descent are deliberately being replaced with nonwhite people.
Musk provided no evidence to show such a Biden strategy exists. And the claim doesn’t add up, because it takes immigrants years to become U.S. citizens, and there’s no guarantee that immigrants who gain citizenship will vote for Democrats.
We emailed the X press account and received an automatic reply saying, “busy now, please check back later.”
Musk called this alleged strategy “very simple” and “effective,” but it’s neither.
Federal law requires citizenship as a condition to vote in national elections. Gaining citizenship can take a decade or longer.
Interacting with the government, including trying to vote, is something immigrants in the country illegally try to avoid, Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist, previously told Politifact: “They are not going to go register to vote and expose themselves.”
Occasionally, noncitizens have been prosecuted for voting. When noncitizens register to vote, it is often in error.
Musk’s X post included a screenshot of a January 2021 Associated Press article about Biden’s plan to ask Congress to create a path for citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But Biden’s efforts stalled because his proposed 2021 bill did not advance.
Biden said he would have signed the Senate legislation last week that was considerably tougher on immigration. If fully implemented, the proposal would have decreased the number of immigrants permitted into the country because of its higher standard to be considered for asylum. Republican senators ultimately blocked the deal from passing.
Michelle Mittelstadt, a spokesperson for the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said the new legislation did not “provide any path to citizenship for anyone currently in the country illegally and would not in any way expedite legal permanent residence for any future border arrivals.”
“It takes on average 5 years in green card status before a person can become a U.S. citizen, so no one would instantly gain the right to vote,” Mittelstadt said.
And there is no guarantee that immigrants who become citizens will vote for Democrats.
Experts have told Politifact it’s ridiculous to make assumptions about how immigrants crossing the border now will vote in the future if they gain citizenship.
Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, the platform now known as X has removed guardrails designed to restrict the flow of misinformation and disinformation.
It’s easy to discount such “conspiracy theory nonsense” from random trolls on X, but it’s powerful when it comes from Musk, who owns the platform, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a group that advocates for voting rights.
Democracies require participation, and falsehoods “only increase the likelihood that people will lose faith in our elections and simply opt out,” Gutierrez said.