Last November, this editor published a VIP post about a hot take: the Founding Fathers were all immigrants.
The Founders of America were literally immigrants. https://t.co/VXHnQhTNEx
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) November 17, 2025
Immigrants to what country? People were happy to inform the poster that they might have been settlers, and that the vast majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in the colonies.
The issue has come up again, with Rep. Jamie Raskin informing a House committee that Thomas Paine, the father of the American Revolution, was an undocumented immigrant. When Rep. Jim Jordan countered that Paine was not an illegal immigrant, Raskin reiterated that he said "undocumented" immigrant, which is what Democrats today call illegal aliens.
Raskin: "Thomas Paine was an undocumented immigrant."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 18, 2026
Jordan: "How was he an illegal immigrant? He was born in the UK and came to America, then a British colony."
Raskin: "I didn't say he was an illegal immigrant. He was an undocumented immigrant." pic.twitter.com/3H6fDV02rf
How is he an immigrant if he went from the British Empire to the British Empire?
— Justine (@BruinJustine) March 18, 2026
He went from one part of Britain to another part of Britain. Just like 90 % of the colonial immigrants!
— Old Grouch (@old_grouch1) March 18, 2026
A British subject moving from the UK to a colony is not an immigrant of any kind.
— Dogmatic Tower (@DogmaticTower) March 18, 2026
US citizens and resident aliens can move between states at will. This does not imply that anyone in the world can move to the USA.
He was a British citizen who came to the then-British colony in America.
— kStarr (@starr11063) March 18, 2026
Paine wasn't an immigrant at all, at least in the modern understanding of it. He moved from one British jurisdiction to another. It's like saying someone from California who moves to Hawaii or (even) Puerto Rico is an immigrant.
— TheHistoryOfTheAmericans (@TheHistoryOfTh2) March 18, 2026
Identity and bona fides were documented on ship’s manifest. 💁♀️
— Jacqui Anderson (@Jacquiann316) March 18, 2026
I bet he had to sign the ships log as a passenger.
— Awggy Dawggy (@shadeymd) March 18, 2026
He was so documented that we're still talking about him today
— Braeden (@BraedenSorbo) March 18, 2026
Thomas Jefferson's family, on almost all sides, were founding families of early Virginia. His earliest ancestors here sailed in 1619.
— Anna D. West 🇺🇸 (@SlimWiggy) March 18, 2026
I get that the Democrats LOVE to erase early Virginia but it's just ridiculous at this point.
Based on common practice at the time, he may also have carried:
— TomNJ (@TomNJ2) March 18, 2026
•Personal letters
•Possibly proof of past employment (he had worked as an excise officer)
•Basic identification papers (though nothing like modern IDs)
When Paine left England he’d had business failures and was starting over. What made his move possible was help from Benjamin Franklin, whom he met in London. Franklin gave him a letter of introduction, which was the single most important document Paine carried.
— TomNJ (@TomNJ2) March 18, 2026
Geezus the stupidity is immeasurable
— Spitfire (@RealSpitfire) March 18, 2026
Democrats will say or do anything to legitimize illegal immigration. Raskin really thought he had something there with "undocumented immigrant."
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