March 31

Celebrate Cesar Chavez’s birthday as National Border Control Day

March 31 is the birthday of late civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers union, was a fierce opponent of illegal immigration and supporter of tight border controls.

Chavez’s core insight was based on the law of supply and demand: Flooding the labor market with people from abroad undermines American workers trying to improve their lot in life.

This is why it is only fitting that March 31 should be recognized each year as National Border Control Day. Happy birthday, Cesar Chavez!

Cesar Chavez Couldn’t Get the Feds to Enforce the Border, Either

“What the heck’s going on? It’s just — it’s a complete breakdown of the law. They’re not doing anything.”

This isn’t Donald Trump at a rally complaining about the Biden crowd’s maladministration of the border. It was Cesar Chavez’s assessment of immigration enforcement under an earlier Democratic administration, in a speech delivered 45 years ago at the National Press Club in Washington.

National Review Online, 2024



2023 CIS Border Tour Video

Mark Krikorian celebrates Cesar Chavez’s Birthday and National Border Control Day.

Where Have You Gone, Cesar Chavez?

Seeing the border at Chavez’s hometown highlights how bad the situation really is. Joe Biden’s La Invitación to the world’s potential migrants has created an unprecedented flow of illegal aliens.

Once a relatively sleepy stretch of the border, Yuma has seen an explosion in illegal crossings…

National Review Online, 2023

Cesar Chavez Belonged to a Vanishing Breed: The Pro-Borders Left

In a 1974 interview, Chavez said, “There’s an awful lot of illegals coming in…They’re coming in by the thousands, it’s just unbelievable. See, they’re coming in with the consent of the immigration service.”

Today’s landscape bears striking similarities to Chavez’s, with a few key differences.

National Review Online, 2022

If Cesar Chavez’s Bust Could Talk

The Left’s inversion of Chavez into a prophet of open borders is the reason the president’s staff strategically placed a bust of him in the Oval Office during the photo op when Biden signed a series of executive orders weakening immigration enforcement.

American Greatness, 2021

Happy Border Control Day

Celebrate Cesar Chavez’s true views about illegal immigration. Today, Cesar Chavez’s birthday, has become Mexican Americans’ equivilent of Columbus Day for Italian Americans. It is a holiday in certain states.

National Review, 2019

Congressional Resolution 2019

A resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives to recognize Cesar Chavez’s birthday as National Border Control Day, which “encourages the people of the United States to observe National Border Control Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”

Congressional Resolution 2018

A resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives to recognize Cesar Chavez’s birthday as National Border Control Day, which “encourages the people of the United States to observe National Border Control Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”

Control the Border? Si Se Puede!

Saturday, March 31, would have been Cesar Chavez’s 91st Birthday. Given Chavez’s consistent commitment to strict border enforcement to help poor Americans improve their condition, it is a fitting date for National Border Control Day.

National Review, 2018

Hail Cesar!

On March 31st, 1927, Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in Yuma, Ariz., to parents who had come north from Mexico as children in the 1890s. He went on to found the United Farm Workers union, and by his death in 1993…

National Review, 2017

Cesar Chavez’s Famous Speech at the National Press Club, 1979

His words are as prescient today as they were when first spoken over 30 years ago. Enforcing the nation’s immigration laws is not a “political game”.

Center for Immigration Studies, 2010 

Group Declares Cesar Chavez’s Birthday National Border Control Day

“Honor Cesar Chavez by celebrating National Border Control Day!,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in a tweet.

NBC News, 2016 

Happy Border Control Day!

On Cesar Chavez’s birthday, a reminder that he was a fierce opponent of illegal immigration.

National Review, 2014

Cesar Chavez, Minuteman

During his prime, Chavez, a third generation American citizen from Yuma, Arizona and Navy veteran, was an American labor leader fighting against the importation of strikebreakers from Mexico.

The American Conservative, 2006

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