Billionaire Elon Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Democratic politicians are permitting illegal immigration to build and consolidate political power through the congressional apportionment process.
Musk weighed in on an appearance by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., on FOX Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" in which Hagerty said that Democrats "want these illegal migrants to create more electoral power for them in their blue states" and that with an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in the country, it's the equivalent of 13 House districts depending on how they're allocated.
"More presidential and House of Representatives electoral votes will be assigned to the new illegals Biden has let in than the population of 40 US states," Musk wrote. "Let that sink in."
"Increasing illegals boosts Dem voting power, causing them to recruit even more! If Dems win President, House & Senate (with enough seats to overcome filibuster), they'll grant citizenship to all illegals & America will become a permanent one-party deep socialist state," Musk added in a follow-up post in response to a reply noting the dynamic incentivizes Democrats to permit illegal immigration.
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Illegal immigrants are prohibited from voting in federal elections by law, so they're restricted from participating in that manner. However, Musk noted that the congressional reapportionment process gives states with larger populations of illegal immigrants more clout in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College.
The congressional reapportionment process that occurs every 10 years occurs after the Census to redraw the lines of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives is based on the entire population of a prospective district — not solely the number of American citizens who live in that area. On average, each congressional district had an average of about 761,000 constituents as of 2023.
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Musk, who is originally from South Africa and legally immigrated to the U.S. from Canada, has been outspoken in his opposition to illegal immigration in recent months. Last week, Musk took to X to take issue with media reports criticizing him as being against immigration and immigrants in general.
"Because I am raising concerns about the flood of unvetted illegal immigrants overwhelming American cities, the press will often characterize me as 'anti-immigrant.' As an immigrant myself, nothing could be further from the truth," Musk wrote. "I am very much in favor of increased and expedited legal immigration for anyone who is talented, hard-working and honest."
"It is bizarrely difficult and agonizingly slow to immigrate to the USA legally, but trivial and fast to enter illegally! This obviously makes no sense," he added.
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Hagerty recently offered an amendment to a $460 billion spending package that the Senate considered that would have required the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census and bar anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen from being counted for the purpose of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment.
The amendment was defeated on a 51-45 margin with all Senate members of the Democratic caucus who were present voting down the measure. They were joined by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, in opposition to the amendment.
The issue of border security and illegal immigration has emerged as one of the leading issues for voters heading into the 2024 elections. A Fox News Poll conducted at the end of February found that while the economy was the top issue for 37% of voters, immigration followed at 21%, while abortion at 10% was the only other issue to hit double digits.
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An analysis by Fox News in late February found that nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border since President Joe Biden took office. That figure is greater than the population of 36 individual states. The total does not include an estimated additional 1.8 million known "gotaways" who avoided apprehension by law enforcement after entering the country.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo, Adam Shaw and Victoria Belara contributed to this report.
