‘The Wall Is Idiotic’: Radical Iowa Democrat Mike Franken Pushes Open Borders on America, Argued Illegal Immigration Is ‘Not A Crime’

Mike Franken, Democrat running for U.S. Senate against Sen. Chuck Grassley in Iowa, speaks
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Matthew Boyle
Washington, DC

The Democrat who won the nomination for U.S. Senate in Iowa is even more radical than most when it comes to the issue of immigration.

Mike Franken, who shocked political observers when he beat former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) for the U.S. Senate nomination and an opportunity to face longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in November’s general election, has a long history of advocating open borders policies that are harmful to American workers and families.

“The wall is idiotic,” Franken said in 2020, for instance, also promoting the “kids in cages” false attack against then-President Donald Trump. Leftists had been arguing Trump put “kids in cages” on the border, but the enclosures were actually established during Democrat former President Barack Obama’s administration — during which Biden was vice president.

That line is one he repeatedly used that year, when he ran for Senate and lost the Democrat nomination to Theresa Greenfield. Greenfield, who lost the general election to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), has gone on to serve in Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration.

But during that primary, Franken repeatedly touted positions at odds with American sovereignty. He also called for policies that would “protect” so-called “DREAMers,” who are illegal alien youths who entered the country as minors.

When asked during a primary debate in May 2020 with Greenfield if it should be a crime to cross the border illegally, Franken said it should not be a crime.

“It’s not a crime,” Franken said of people crossing the border illegally. “Get the kids out of the cages. The wall is idiotic.”

Asked about these radical views from Franken, Grassley responded harshly in a statement to Breitbart News.

Grassley said in the statement:

President Biden’s open border policy abdicates America’s sovereignty. We are a nation of laws and society is held together by the rule of law, from public safety to the economy. Anyone who truly listens to Iowans and cares what they have to say would not be supporting amnesty, sending payments to illegal immigrants and making it possible for anyone to come into our country without our permission. As the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I’m leading the fight against President Biden’s open border policies. Iowans are sick and tired of a president who doesn’t enforce our laws while we have historic numbers of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border. Finishing the border wall is a commonsense step for border security and the taxpayer, especially considering Americans are paying $3 million a day to guard the unused steel for the wall Biden canceled on his first day in office.

Franken has also attacked Trump and his supporters, including veterans who support Trump.

He also described people who supported Trump as engaged in “slavish devotion” to the former president, and he attacked them as “Republican Heretics”:

These immigration and Trump positions are hardly the only extremist comments and views that Franken has espoused. Earlier this week, the Washington Free Beacon published a story detailing how Franken believes — as he said at a campaign event just last week — that there is a conspiracy between capitalists and evangelicals to “dumb down” American youths.

Franken argues in the video, published by the Free Beacon, that the right’s recent focus on education is really because Republicans want to “make people dumb and lemmings.”

“Is this what Newt Gingrich wanted everybody to do in the ’90s?” Franken said. ”Dumb down America as much as we can because the demographics are working against the Republican Party? It’s true. It appears so.”

Gingrich responded to the shocking video by saying he found the Democrat’s comments “laughable.”

“As a Ph.D. in European history and author of more than 40 books, I find it laughable that Franken thinks I could be anti-learning. I participated in the launch of President Reagan’s dramatic report A Nation at Risk in 1983,” Gingrich said. “The teachers’ unions and their Democratic Party loyalists have fought against reform every step of the way. Children should not be trapped in terrible schools that cripple their future. Parents have the right to know what is being taught to their children.”

What’s more, Iowans including Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) were appalled when Franken tried to politicize the recent Highland Park shooting in nearby Illinois, twisting the events there somehow into an attack on Grassley. Hinson fired back, saying Franken’s behavior was “disgusting” and “just shameful”:

The fact that Democrats nominated this person, who has regularly espoused such radical views, is something that could quickly eliminate the ability for Democrats to compete in the Hawkeye State this year. Iowa, once a battleground political bellwether state, has been trending steadily more and more towards Republicans in recent elections. Voter registrations showing people leaving the Democrat party and joining the GOP in droves since the 2020 election would seem to only further enforce that trend. Recent polling from the Des Moines Register also shows Trump leading Biden by big margins there in a potential 2024 rematch. Trump won Iowa in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and again in 2020 against Biden.

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