Statement: President Joe Biden’s immigration policy was “a giant voter importation scam.”
When he wasn’t waving a bureaucracy chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Elon Musk revived false campaign rhetoric about former President Joe Biden trying to import voters illegally.
In a Feb. 20 interview, Newsmax host Rob Schmitt asked: “You think they were creating a new voter class? You think that was the goal when they opened up the borders for four years?”
Elon Musk
Musk said Biden had a political incentive to “maximize” people in the country illegally.
“That is why the Biden administration was pushing to get in as many illegals as possible and spend every dollar possible to get as many, because every one of them is a customer,” Musk said. “Everyone’s a voter. The whole thing was a giant voter importation scam.”
Musk, now involved with President Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, repeated falsehoods he spread early in the 2024 election year that Biden had an election strategy to import voters through illegal immigration. We emailed the White House press office asking for evidence and did not hear back.
There is no guarantee that immigrants who become citizens will vote or will vote for Democrats. Although the southwestern border gets the most attention, immigrants who come illegally are not from Latin America only.
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist in California and author of the book “The Latino Century,” said Republicans won the largest national Hispanic vote share in 2024 than in presidential elections in recent cycles.
The New York Times documented a conservative shift among immigrants after the 2020 election. Its analysis of voting in 28,000 precincts in more than 20 cities found that immigrant-dense neighborhoods with large populations of Latinos and residents of Asian descent had a surge in turnout and shifted to the right.
“There is zero evidence that immigration has harmed Republican Party prospects,” Bier previously told us.
Eligible naturalized citizens make up about 10% of voters, Pew Research Center found in 2024.
Voting by noncitizens is rare.
There are incidents of noncitizens voting in elections, but they are sporadic among millions of votes cast in federal elections. Immigrants who cross the border illegally are typically looking for jobs, and many are escaping poverty or crime — most don’t want to risk drawing government authorities’ attention by casting a ballot.
Voting by noncitizens carries high risks that include deportation if they are here illegally or incarceration. Fraudulent voter registration or voting by noncitizens often results from misunderstandings or errors. For example, some noncitizens accidentally register to vote when applying for a driver’s license.
PolitiFact’s ruling
Musk said Biden’s immigration policy was “a giant voter importation scam.”
There is no evidence that the Biden administration was bringing in people illegally to cast votes. Government data show more than 4.5 million removals, returns and expulsions during Biden’s tenure. Biden stepped up these actions during the election year.
It takes several years for immigrants to become citizens and therefore eligible to vote. Immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally cannot vote and would have to overcome hurdles to become citizens.
We rate this statement Pants on Fire.
Our sources
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Email interview, David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, Feb. 21, 2025
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Email interview, Anthony Gutierrez, Common Cause Texas executive director, Feb. 21, 2025
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Email interview, Mark Lopez, managing director of race & ethnicity research.at Pew Research Center, Feb. 21, 2025
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fact-checking Elon Musk’s false claim that Biden ‘import(ed)’ voters
