The Movement: Spanish migrant crisis boosts anti-immigration message in US

Footage of African migrants crossing a European-controlled border en masse is the newest red meat for right-wing politicians and commentators who want to make the border a hot topic for 2026 and especially 2028. 

The crossing took place last week, when tens of thousands of migrants entered Ceuta, an autonomous city belonging to Spain on the African coast, where it’s bordered by Morocco. The Spanish government managed to quickly turn away the flow of migrants, sending many back across the border and erecting a floating barrier near the seawall border line. 

But conservatives, including President Trump, quickly seized on the imagery of thousands of people, mostly adult Moroccan men, emerging from the water onto beaches in Ceuta and waiting outside migrant centers in the city. Trump, talking to Fox News Friday morning, said those pictures are a warning sign for the U.S.

“That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in,” Trump said. 

The situation of African migrants in Europe, and the political dynamics in the European Union vis-à-vis immigration, are not an exact parallel to the issue of Latin American immigration to the United States. 

But securing the southern border has been a winning issue for American conservatives for decades, and they’re welcoming any chance to remind voters that migrant crossings to the U.S. were up during former President Biden’s administration and are down in Trump’s.

“Having that in people’s heads once again, seeing those visuals, makes people think about Biden’s time in office, and like this could happen again if there’s a Democratic president, Democratic Congress,” said Ryan Girdusky, a conservative commentator and operative. 

Girdusky mentioned the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, during which more than one million people entered the European Union fleeing conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as elsewhere in Africa and the Balkans. Fallout a decade later has reshaped European politics, and Girdusky said headlines from that year helped spur Trump’s 2016 victory as they stoked fears about immigration an ocean away.

“Back in 2015, 2016, people were sharing videos of thousands of migrants storming into Greece and other places, and it absolutely made people feel like, ‘Oh wow, this can happen here at any given time,’” Girdusky said. 

Perhaps no one in the administration was more eager to draw comparisons between Ceuta and the pre-Trump U.S. than the White House’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. 

Miller has posted several times on social media since the migrant surge began to make news Friday. 

“The Democrats did this to America every single day for 4 years under Biden and will do it again instantaneously, but orders of magnitude greater, if they are given any form of national power, ” Miller wrote, responding to a post featuring videos from the Ceuta surge. “Democrats will see your home trampled and stolen by invaders and they will rejoice.”

Miller then began reposting photos and videos from other accounts associated with the White House and House Republicans, claiming they were images and footage taken from the Mexican border during the Biden administration. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted his own video — with his seal on it — directly comparing footage from Ceuta to the U.S. border. 

Border security has, for the most part, been out of the headlines in recent months. Customs and Border Protection reported around 9,800 attempted illegal crossings in June 2026, slightly up from last year but down significantly since their........

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