David Crowley has crossed a line. A line that should matter to every Black voter in Wisconsin. In a July interview on Wiseye Politics with J.R. Ross, David Crowley compared the trauma of American slavery to the modern debate over illegal immigration.
Slavery and illegal immigration are not comparable. Not morally, not historically, not politically, not emotionally. Slavery was hell. Illegal immigration is not. And Crowley should damn well know better than to compare the two!
Crowley’s attempt to equate the horrors of slavery with the experiences of illegal immigrants is not just historically inaccurate, it’s offensive.
Our ancestors were kidnapped, beaten, raped, sold as property, legally classified as less than human, and denied basic rights and human dignity. Illegal immigrants are not living under anything remotely comparable. They are not property. They are not legally dehumanized. They are not being bought and sold. They are not being forced into generational bondage.
Many illegal immigrants have had access to public schooling, grants and scholarships, foodShare, healthcare, housing assistance, driver’s licenses, and legal aid.
To compare these experiences to slavery is historically reckless and morally insulting.
Crowley has openly stated that he wants Wisconsin to become a “safe haven” for illegal immigrants. He promised more “resource hubs” funded by taxpayers to provide aid to illegal immigrants. He even said he would issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants if elected governor.
Crowley invoked the story of Joshua Glover, an escaped slave who fled to Wisconsin seeking freedom. Glover was hunted under the Fugitive Slave Act, a law that treated human beings as property and forced free states to return escaped slaves to their captors. Wisconsin was the only U.S. state whose high court formally declared the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 unconstitutional.
Crowley said, “That is the same type of mentality, the same type of spirit that we need to have when it comes down to our immigrant populations.”
Absolutely not.
Joshua Glover was a man escaping torture, bondage, and legal dehumanization. Illegal immigrants are individuals who crossed a border without authorization.
These are not parallel experiences. They are not morally interchangeable.
Crowley’s comparison cheapens the suffering of enslaved people and misrepresents the immigration debate entirely.
Crowley claims illegal immigrants are contributing to Wisconsin’s economy, schools, and services, but where is the data and proof of that?
Milwaukee county residents are dealing with high crime, teen mobs, and reckless driving just to name a few issues. David Crowley is not addressing the violence tearing through the county at all. Crowley has not shown up for any of these crises with the same energy he shows for illegal immigration.But he is ready to make Wisconsin a sanctuary state. Make that make sense.
Crowley’s comparison is not leadership, it’s political theater. It’s a soundbite designed to stir emotion with his party, not to solve problems. If anything his policies will create even more problems.
Crowley is distorting Black history to justify an unrelated political agenda and Milwaukee’s Black community deserves much better than someone who has neglected them for six years. We need attention desperately. Look around and see what his leadership has done for us. Absolutely nothing! He does not deserve our support and he definitely does not deserve our vote.
