Dem senator says illegals ‘should go home’ — her voting record tells a different story

Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, one of several elected Democrats seeking to lead the party out of the wilderness, issued her strongest condemnation of illegal immigration to date and suggested her Democratic colleagues were out of step with voters on the issue.

Slotkin told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that migrants who enter the United States with no legal status should “go home” and suggested that crossing the border illegally should be recognized as a criminal offense. Though Slotkin’s tough on-illegal immigration comments notably diverge from those of other congressional Democrats choosing to double down on abolishing immigration enforcement, Republicans argue that she has consistently voted for open borders.

Slotkin has seldom broken with Democrats to join GOP lawmakers in voting to crack down on illegal migration or provide additional resources to federal immigration authorities during her time in Congress. NumbersUSA, a conservative immigration-focused advocacy organization, gives Slotkin a 12% lifetime rating on its “immigration-reduction grade card.”

The Michigan Democrat was first elected to the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2024 winning a congressional district and state that President Donald Trump also carried during the past election cycle. She has quickly gained national prominence by delivering the Democrats’ rebuttal to the president’s joint address to Congress in March and has rolled out a “war plan” to counter Trump who she argues poses an “existential” threat to democracy.

“I’m a national security person by training. I spent my entire career trying to prevent threats to the homeland,” Slotkin told the Times’ David Leonhardt while defending her vote for the Laken Riley Act in January. “And if you’re here illegally, you shouldn’t be.”

“[I]f you’re here illegally, you have committed a crime and you should go home,” Slotkin added. “[I] think we have to be honest with ourselves that while our immigration system is not functioning right and we owe an actual immigration plan for a nation of immigrants, that doesn’t mean someone has the right to be here illegally.”

Slotkin was one of 12 Senate Democrats who crossed the aisle to back the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation Trump signed into law during his second term, which made it easier for federal immigration authorities to detain and deport illegal migrants. She notably supported an effort by Senate Democrats, however, to weaken the bill by voting “yes” on a failed amendment that would have prevented states from suing the federal government for failing to enforce immigration laws.

The Michigan Democrat also voted against Senate Republicans’ budget resolution in April unlocking more than $175 billion in border security funding in the president’s “one big, beautiful bill.” The budget blueprint also laid the groundwork to enact an extension of the expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts and deliver on the president’s campaign pledge to eliminate taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay.

She voted “no” on a resolution in July 2024 condemning the Biden administration and its “border czar” former Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to secure the border during Biden’s term.

Slotkin also opposed House Republicans’ sweeping border security legislation known as H.R.2, the Secure the Border Act, during a vote in May 2023. The bill would have required most employers to use E-Verify to ensure new hires have legal status to work in the United States, issued new restrictions on asylum seekers and directed the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction.

Slotkin supported former President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act in 2021, which would have among other things granted amnesty to more than 7 million illegal migrants living in the United States.

During Trump’s first term in 2019, she also joined House Democrats in voting to rescind the president’s national emergency declaration allowing Trump to use Department of Defense funds to build the southern border wall.

Democratic strategists have suggested that elected Democrats’ failure to address the surge in illegal immigration during Biden’s sole White House term contributed to the party’s lackluster performance last November.

Leonhardt has notably argued that Democrats should shift right on illegal immigration and border security, allowing the party to become more competitive in national elections and align better with the median voter’s beliefs about immigration.

Though 54% of registered voters believe the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts have “gone too far,” roughly the same amount of voters support deporting illegal migrants back to their home countries and believe the government should not grant legal status to foreigners who came to the United States illegally, according to an April New York Times-Siena survey.

Slotkin has also called on Democrats to reject identity politics and employ an “alpha energy” that appeals to voters who believe the party is “weak” and “woke.”

Slotkin notably broke with Democrats in May to overturn California’s de facto national electric vehicle mandate. No other Senate Democrat joined her in raising concerns about banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 in California and 11 other states who adopted the Golden State’s vehicle emission rule.

“I don’t think we can stand up to Trump in a credible, thoughtful, strategic way if we don’t own the mistakes we made in the last election that got us here,” Slotkin told the Times.

A spokesperson for Slotkin did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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