Open Borders and Abolishing ICE Will Not Play in Peoria

Townhall 

Dating back to the early 20th century, Peoria, Illinois, was a place where vaudeville performers tested out their acts before taking them to other markets around the country. If it “played in Peoria,” considered a prototypical middle American town, it would likely appeal to audiences in the rest of the country.

“Will it play in Peoria?” later became a catchphrase for the Nixon administration, serving as a bellwether for the popularity (or lack thereof) of political policies his administration was hoping to implement. It was places like Peoria (though not Peoria itself) that propelled the Blue Wave that swept Democrats back into control of both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.

The national Democrat Party has veered sharply to the left in recent years, driven by woke and cultural elitists who have made deep inroads into the party. The Democrats who were elected in purple and even ruby red states and districts in the midterm elections were swept into office by voters who care more about the cost of living than people’s pronouns. These are the new members of the House and Senate who returned Democrats to control of Congress.

In traditional Democratic strongholds, new Senate and House members aligned with the Democratic Socialist wing of the party, like Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) or Democrat Rep.-elect Darializa Chevelier (NY-13), merely replaced other Democrats, albeit somewhat less radical ones. Platforms like Abolish ICE and amnesty for millions of illegal aliens may play in deep blue states and districts, but they are not the sorts of issues that motivated Kansas voters to elect Adam Hamilton, who will be the first Democrat to represent that state in the Senate since 1932.

None of the new members who flipped House and Senate seats from red to blue campaigned on reopening our borders, ending immigration enforcement or granting sweeping amnesties to millions of illegal aliens. They were elected by voters who felt that Republicans had failed to honor their promises to address pocketbook issues like inflation, access to affordable healthcare and housing, better wages and other domestic priorities.

Returning to the immigration chaos that these same voters soundly rejected in 2024 will not play in any of the states and districts that handed Democrats their legislative majority. In fact, embracing the immigration agenda of the radical national party would render their ability to deliver on their campaign pledges all the more elusive.

In some ways, being in the minority for the past two years afforded the Democrats the luxury of pandering to their far-left base. When it came to issues like immigration, the overriding question for the national Democrat Party was, “Will it play in Brooklyn and Berkeley?”

Assuming that they want to remain in the majority and be competitive nationally in 2028, the new congressional leadership will have to ask themselves, “Will it play in Peoria and Plano?” If so, they will need to focus on the priorities of the voters in purple and red states and districts that turned blue this year. Abolishing ICE and restarting the flow of migrants heading to our borders is most definitely not what voters in most of the country are looking for.

Not voting on, much less passing, legislation to ensure that our border and immigration laws remain enforced beyond the end of the current administration was a political failure by the Republican-led 119th Congress. There is even less chance that the Democratic-led 120th Congress will consider such legislation, even though it has broad public support.

The radical left wing of the Democrat Party will surely push for ending immigration enforcement and granting amnesty to illegal aliens. However, a united Republican opposition and newly elected purple and red state Democrats (who’d like to keep those jobs for a while) can form a working coalition that can get the country through the next two years without irreparable harm.