Quick Hit:

In a blistering critique published in the New York Post, author Adam B. Coleman accuses today’s Democratic leaders of embracing the same arguments once used by pro-slavery advocates in the antebellum South. Highlighting comments from Representatives Jasmine Crockett, Jerry Nadler, and Senator Adam Schiff, Coleman draws stark parallels between historical justifications for slavery and modern Democratic defenses of illegal immigration, exposing what he calls a “rekindled romance” with oppressive labor policies masked as compassion.

Key Details:

• Coleman connects modern Democrats’ defense of illegal immigrant labor to 19th-century pro-slavery rhetoric.

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) cited American unwillingness to do manual labor as a justification for relying on illegal immigrant workers.

• Coleman argues the Democratic position empowers drug cartels, fosters human suffering, and contradicts the party’s claimed human rights agenda.

Diving Deeper:

Author Adam B. Coleman, writing for the New York Post, forcefully argues that the Democratic Party’s defense of illegal immigration mirrors the economic justifications once used to prop up slavery. He opens his critique by quoting Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who said, “So, I had to go around the country and educate people about what immigrants do for this country… The fact is ain’t none of y’all trying to go and farm right now.” At a church event in Connecticut, Crockett added, “We done picking cotton. We are. You can’t pay us enough to find a plantation.”

Coleman juxtaposes these comments with historical rhetoric from pro-slavery ideologues, such as James D.B. De Bow, who in 1850 wrote that removing slave labor would destroy Southern agriculture and, in turn, Northern prosperity. “What would he think that 170 years later, a black congresswoman was echoing his argument,” Coleman asks. “Who will pick the cotton?” he adds, drawing attention to the uncomfortable overlap between today’s political rationales and the moral failures of America’s past.

The op-ed also highlights Rep. Jerry Nadler’s remark during a congressional hearing: “Forget the fact that our vegetables would rot in the ground if it weren’t being picked by many immigrants, many illegal immigrants.” Similarly, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) pressed a Trump nominee in 2025 on the supposed threat to California agriculture if mass deportations removed the illegal workforce. “Americans don’t want to do that work. It’s frankly too backbreaking,” Schiff argued.

Coleman’s broader point is that the Democratic Party is once again choosing economic expediency over moral clarity. “The modern Democratic Party has rekindled its romance with pro-slavery logic to uphold an oppressive system,” he writes. He further asserts that the cost of this labor policy is staggering, citing cartel-led kidnappings and human trafficking that flourish under lax border enforcement. In a particularly disturbing example, Coleman references a 2021 NBC News report in which a Honduran man and his daughter were kidnapped by cartels, with threats to kill them unless ransom was paid — a human tragedy he links directly to open-border policies.

The piece argues that while Democrats posture as champions of human rights, they ignore the brutality endured by illegal immigrants who are exploited and trafficked. “What Democrats won’t emphasize is that cheap labor comes attached to human suffering,” Coleman writes. He charges that the American appetite for cheap labor “perverts our ambition to be consistent about fighting for human rights in our own backyard.”

In closing, Coleman underscores the moral contradiction: a political party that claims to cancel historical sins is simultaneously reviving the logic that justified them. In his words, “History repeats itself as our modern-day slaves die in abandoned tractor-trailers from heat stroke as they’re being smuggled into America like expendable cargo.”

"Jasmine Crockett" by Gage Skidmore licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)