Joe Biden's open border wasn't an accident – it was a choice made by people who couldn't even say out loud what they were choosing.
Now one of those people is sitting in front of Congress, and a Republican senator just made him prove it.
Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno asked Biden's former White House policy adviser a single question Tuesday – and what happened next tells you everything about why the House Homeland Security Committee documented 10.8 million border encounters on Biden's watch.
Biden White House Adviser Says He Does Not Know if Illegal Immigration Should Be a Crime
The witness was Brendan Duke – senior policy adviser to the Biden White House National Economic Council, the team that shaped Biden's economic and domestic agenda for four years.
Moreno asked him a simple question during a Senate Budget Committee hearing: Did the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act make a mistake when it prohibited illegal entry into the United States?
Duke said he didn't know anything about the law.
Moreno pressed harder. "Do you think it should be a crime to enter the country illegally?"
Duke said he was there to talk about budgets.
Moreno didn't let go. "I'm not a lawyer, you don't have to be a lawyer. It's a simple question. Should it be a crime? I'll say it slowly. Should it be a crime to enter the United States of America illegally without permission?"
Duke said again he didn't know anything about that specific law.
Moreno Corners Biden Adviser With One Question About His Own Home
That's when Moreno went in for the kill.
He asked Duke if he owned a home.
Duke said he rents.
"Should it be a crime for people to enter your home without permission?"
Duke said yes – immediately, without hesitation.
The exchange blew up instantly on social media.
Conservative commentator Kimberly Klacik nailed it: "Democrats can't define a woman. Democrats can't identify a crime. This is pathetic."
Heritage Action called out the man laughing in the audience behind Duke – someone in the room who couldn't help himself watching a Biden adviser pretend the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act was too complicated to have an opinion about.
This Is What Four Years of Open Borders Looked Like Behind Closed Doors
Duke wasn't some random left-wing activist dragged in off the street.
He was a senior adviser at Biden's National Economic Council – the same White House operation that decided not to enforce the border, let parole programs run unchecked, and presided over the largest illegal immigration surge in American history.
He helped shape the Biden agenda.
And when asked under oath whether crossing the border illegally should be a crime, he sat in the United States Senate and said he didn't know.
This is the pattern Moreno has exposed repeatedly in 2026 – the same pattern he revealed when he cornered Minnesota AG Keith Ellison in February, walking Ellison into admitting he considers Mexico and Canada safe countries, then watching Ellison try to explain why migrants need to pass through both of them to claim asylum in the United States.
Ellison couldn't explain it.
Duke can't answer basic questions about it.
Moreno ended Tuesday's hearing the right way.
He turned to ranking member Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and said: "This is the best that Democrats can come up with. A guy who can't distinguish whether it's okay to have people enter our country illegally? Of all the millions of people that you could have chosen to testify?"
Merkley told Moreno to stick to the facts.
Moreno reminded him that in the Senate, people take turns – then pointed out the irony of Democrats defending order in a committee room while refusing to enforce it at the southern border.
The Biden Border Crisis Was a Choice and This Senate Hearing Just Proved It
Moreno posted the exchange on X and said it plainly: "The Biden Border Crisis was a choice. President Trump solved it."
He's right.
The 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act has been federal law for 74 years.
Every senator in that room knows illegal entry is a federal crime – a misdemeanor on first offense, a felony on re-entry.
Brendan Duke, senior policy adviser to the Biden White House, knew it too.
He just couldn't say it out loud in front of the American people.
That's the difference between the two parties right now.
One side passed laws, built walls, deployed agents, and secured the border.
The other side sent a witness to Congress who couldn't answer whether it should be a crime to walk into your country uninvited – then answered the same question about his own apartment in about half a second.
The man laughing in the back row of that Senate hearing room already knew why.
Sources:
- Andrew Mark Miller, "Sparks fly as GOP senator reacts to Biden adviser's 'I don't know' answer on illegal immigration law," Fox News, March 11, 2026.
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Brendan Duke," cbpp.org.
- Sen. Bernie Moreno, Post on X, March 11, 2026.
- House Committee on Homeland Security, "Startling Stats Factsheet: Fiscal Year 2024," October 24, 2024.
- RedState, "Bernie Moreno Corners Keith Ellison, Brilliantly Exposing Big Problem in Dem Immigration Narrative," February 13, 2026.