Spain’s Illegal Alien Invasion Shows It Would Take Democrats Only A Few Hours To Destroy Trump’s Border Progress

It only took hours for tens of thousands of Moroccan illegal aliens to invade the Spanish territory of Ceuta this week. Removing those who remain will take far longer — if Spain even manages to remove them, given a recent court ruling that prohibits immediately deporting migrants who arrive by sea, as many did. But let Spain’s overrun border be a reminder to Americans when measuring President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts against the mess left by the Biden administration: A government can destroy its border and country within a matter of days, sometimes weeks. Restoring sovereignty after your country is flooded with foreigners is a much more difficult and slow undertaking — and punishing Trump in the midterms won’t make the problem better. According to The New York Times, nearly 60,000 migrants invaded Ceuta within about 24 hours. Ceuta’s entire population is roughly 85,000. Videos show hundreds of military-aged men running across the border, arriving in boats, and breaking through barriers. Eventually military forces were deployed. Tens of thousands of the invaders reportedly self-deported. But the event showed just how quickly a country can lose its sovereignty. Tens of thousands of people entered in one day illegally. Spain cannot easily deport these migrants either. Those who claim to seek asylum must be processed, minors get even more protections, and a recent court ruling reportedly restricts the government’s ability to deport migrants who arrived via the ocean. In other words, breaking the border can happen almost instantaneously. And deporting those Moroccans will take tons of time, effort, money, court proceedings, and hurdling of whatever other roadblocks Spain’s leftist politicians put in place. Americans should recognize the problem. For four years they watched millions of illegal aliens literally break down barriers and flood the border while the Biden administration dismantled enforcement, expanded parole programs, flew migrants into the country, and even fought states like Texas that tried to protect themselves. But now that the daily videos of illegals flooding the border have disappeared, it can be easy to forget the scale of the mess Trump inherited. In part it might explain why so many Republicans are understandably dissatisfied with the pace of deportations. An April Pew Research poll found that, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 28 percent felt the Trump administration was doing “too little” to deport illegal aliens. A few weeks before that Politico reported that “top allies” of the president were “furious” that the White House was focusing on deporting violent criminals rather than simply all illegal aliens. To be clear, their frustrations are valid; Americans were promised mass deportation without exception. Americans who watched in horror when thousands of illegals flooded our southern border day after day and then invaded their communities are right to want faster and larger deportation efforts (and not just for violent illegals). But frustration with the current progress does not mean progress has not been made, nor does it mean that voters should sit the midterms out to punish Republicans. As of July 23, nearly 600,000 illegal aliens have been deported since Trump took office. Tens of thousands of illegals have left voluntarily. Border crossing is virtually nonexistent due to enforcement operations, and entering the country illegally is far more difficult now than it was under Biden. In fact, net migration fell below zero in 2025 for the first time in 50 years or more, according to a Brookings Institute analysis. All of this is progress, and we expect and deserve more. But deporting an illegal population in the millions (in our case) or thousands (in Ceuta’s case) will not happen overnight. Rome was not built in a day. You can destroy a country in a few hours, but you cannot repair one in equal time unfortunately. But one of the ways that we can continue the progress is by not adding more people to the total of illegals every day — and yet that’s what the left wants to do. The official DSA platform states it will abolish ICE and “end ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality” while also “legal[izing] migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status.” DSA National Co-Chair Megan Romer said in a Fox News interview recently that “as a long-term plan” the DSA wants to abolish borders. “We’re not saying open the borders tomorrow,” Romer said, adding that “open borders is part of a longer-term international plan.” That radical plan matches almost perfectly with the open borders policy “moderate” Democrats put into practice for four years during the Biden administration. If Democrats (and yes, that includes the socialists) regain control of Congress in November or the White House in 2028, they will not need four full years to reopen the border and flood our country with Third World migrants. Ceuta should serve as a warning about how quickly things can be destroyed. Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2 CuertaDeportationsDonald TrumpDSAICEIllegal ImmigrationImmigrationJoe Bidenmass migrationMoroccoSpain