Europe admits JD Vance was right, pivots on mass immigration

Months after Vice President JD Vance excoriated the European elite for allowing unfettered mass immigration from the Third World to ravage the continent, the political winds appear to be shifting as European leaders, and even American Democrats, begin to walk back their permissive policies that enabled sizable demographic shifts in the EU.

Perhaps the flagship for cultural terraforming via embracing third-world immigration, the UK has seen Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launch a high-profile campaign to crack down on immigration and push assimilation in recent days. His series of proposals and high-profile speeches mark a complete reversal of the Labour Party’s longstanding support for mass immigration and comes as polling shows his government losing ground to an anti-immigration outsider party. 

It’s not just the UK either, as other EU governments, notably Romania, appear poised to place immigration critics in power. Dark-blue California, meanwhile, has seen its governor, Gavin Newsom reading the political winds and abandoning his own long-standing policies of providing a wide range of state benefits to illegal aliens.

In his February speech to European leaders, Vance warned Europeans that they risked weakening their alliance with the U.S. due to what he called “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” He notably pointed to the large-scale censorship of mass immigration critics and the cancellation of the Romanian elections due to allegations of Russian interference. Though he faced a tough audience and earned their ire, recent moves in Europe appear to suggest a tacit admission that he was right.

Starmer: "An island of strangers"

The UK ranks among the nations facing the biggest backlash to mass immigration, with Nigel Farage’s Reform Party increasingly taking a dominant position in polling over the incumbent Labour Party and their traditional opponents, the Conservatives. Matters of cultural friction, crime and the growing presence of radical Islam in the nation have even led to the prevalence of the term “the Yookay” to refer to the country in a satirical manner.

Starmer, in a major speech last week, warned that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if it failed to crack down on immigration in which he promised to “take back control of our borders.” He subsequently announced that his government would raise English language proficiency requirements for immigrants, saying “If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English.”

“This is my promise to British people: Every area of our immigration system will be tightened up, so we have more control. And migration numbers will fall,” he promised. Starmer further announced that he would charge employers to recruit overseas and required British firms to show that they were investing in domestic labor. He also promised to cut migration, end asylum hotels, expand efforts to stop boat crossings of the English channel.

In Rotherham, fear of being labeled "Islamophic" freezes government from acting

“Settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right,” he also said. Starmer also announced this week that he had “returned over 24,000 people with no right to be here.” Likely motivating the pivot on immigration were local elections that saw the Reform Party post considerable gains, leading to The Telegraph warning of a possible “extinction” event for Labour in the next election.

Starmer himself has further been the focus of a considerable scandal over the handling of Muslim grooming gangs and widespread child sex trafficking within the UK over his time as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. The issue drew international attention this year, in part, due to Elon Musk regularly sharing content on social media platform X. Many of the child-rape and trafficking arrests were made in Rotherham, where local police and politicians -- including Starmer at the time -- deliberately avoided action in the name of maintaining what they called “community relations,” according to The Free Press. 

Local reports disclosed that local councilors and Members of Parliament rejected pleas for help from the parents of raped children, while pro-immigration charities, NGOs, and Labour MPs accused those who merely discussed the scandal of "racism and Islamophobia."

Romania in "legal chaos"

Last year, independent candidate Călin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round of the Romanian presidential elections, running on a pro-Russian platform. Georgescu opposed having NATO bases in Romania and was a vocal critic of the European Union, including its politically correct support for mass immigration into Europe.

Creating a constitutional crisis, the Romanian courts nullified the elections due to allegations of Russian interference and barred Georgescu from running for office in the new contest. Vance sharply criticized that move during his speech.

“Now, as I understand it, the argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the Romanian elections, but I'd ask my European friends to have some perspective,” he said. “You can believe it's wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few $100,000 of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with.”

With the rejection of Georgescu’s appeal now in "legal chaos," according to The Guardian, he has thrown his support behind the conservative George Simion, who managed to win the first round of the new elections and appears on the verge of taking power on Sunday. Simion has promised that Georgescu would play a prominent role in his administration and many have speculated he will serve as prime minister. The elections are scheduled for Sunday.

Suddenly unwelcome at the Hotel California

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., a long-time proponent of providing state funds to illegal immigrants, last week sought a pause on a California plan to provide healthcare to low-income illegal immigrants, citing unexpectedly high expenses from the program amid expected losses from tariffs.

“The state must take difficult but necessary steps to ensure fiscal stability and preserve the long-term viability of Medi-Cal for all Californians,” he said. Beginning in 2027, illegal aliens in the program will also have to pay a $100 monthly premium.

A border state, California has been at the forefront of the illegal immigrant debate for decades. Newsom, for his part, is widely viewed as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 and has increasingly attracted attention as he attempts to pivot toward the center, seemingly to prepare for such a bid. He recently proposed scaling back having taxpayers foot the bill for providing entitlements to illegal immigrants.

Pollsters and political pundits have acknowledged that Americans' favorable views on Trump's policies to rein in illegal immigration were a large part of his blowout win over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. As a potential Democratic contender, Newsom is perhaps making the shift to appear more in line with US citizens' rejection of a lenient approach to immigration and the resultant effects on crime and poverty in their neighborhoods. A Pew Research Center study released in February showed that 57% of respondents expressed the view that the large number of immigrants seeking to enter the country leads to more crime.