It is an interesting coincidence that only a few months after the US government doubles down on its alliance with Morocco, that Spanish cities bordering Morocco face a coordinated effort to flood Spanish territory with military-age, male, Moroccan “migrants.”
In public statements, GOP politicians and their supporters have expressed dismay over apparently sudden efforts by tens of thousands of Moroccan nationals to break through the Spanish borders in north Africa and overwhelm the native populations of Spanish exclaves.
Yet, it is likely that last week’s border incident is either the direct or indirect result of explicit US policy expressed through recent GOP statements, and through the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage further Moroccan territorial expansionism.
Let’s take a closer look at this strange turn of events.
The GOP’s Support for Morocco
On July 15 2026, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed H.R. 8595, the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. The legislation was accompanied by a committee report, which is not the legislation itself, but is essentially a statement of the GOP’s current policy position. It states:
Morocco.—The Committee continues assistance for Morocco in support of United States national security interests and directs not less than $20,000,000 under National Security Investment Programs and not less than $20,000,000 under Foreign Military Financing Program. The Committee notes the historic alliance between the United States and Morocco, as formalized in 1786 by the Moroccan-American Treaty of Peace and Friendship. The Committee notes that the Spanish-administered cities of Ceuta and Melilla are located in Moroccan territory and remain the subject of Morocco’s longstanding claim.
The language about supporting Morocco’s claims to the Spanish exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla is new, and is reflective of recent efforts by the Administration to further expand ties to Morocco. It should first be noted that the language in the statement about a “historic alliance between the United States and Morocco” is quite a stretch. The current state we call “Morocco” has only existed since 1957, as Morocco did not exist as an independent state during most of the first half of the twentieth century.
Regardless of its historical accuracy, the reason for the insertion of this flowery language is to play up and publicly signal the fact that the current US regime seeks to expand its alliance with Morocco. This has already been in the works for several years and is reflected in how the Moroccan state recently named a major highway after Donald Trump. This was part of a quid pro quo in which the US has recognized various Moroccan expansionist territorial claims in exchange for the normalization of relations between Morocco and the State of Israel. Specifically, in December 2020, the Trump administration recognized Moroccan colonialist claims to the entire disputed region of Western Sahara. For decades, Morocco has worked to brutally repress independence movements in Western Sahara, seeking to establish Moroccan sovereignty in the region. By joining the Washington-Tel Aviv axis, Rabat has secured important support from Washington in its imperialist quest for more control of northwest Africa.
The GOP language inserted into the Committee Report makes it clear that Washington will further support Moroccan territorial claims, including the Spanish exclaves which have existed as outposts of the Christian West for centuries.
Thus, the timing of the surge of Moroccan “migrants” into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week appears suspicious, to say the least. First, of all, it is clear that the mass migration was not some random and spontaneous act of migrants. Prior to the “migration,” trucks were seen transporting Moroccans to the border between Morocco and Ceuta. Moreover, the New York Times has reported that Moroccan police on site were encouraging Moroccans to “come to Spain.” One local Moroccan told the Times ““When there are political problems, Morocco opens the doors and tells us to go.” As Jim Gerghty at National Review notes, “Moroccan police do not just randomly encourage people to cross into Spain without documentation.” In other words, the border chaos was almost certainly a deliberate policy of Trump’s Moroccan allies.
So, we find that only a few weeks after the GOP signaled its support for Morocco’s territorial claims against Spain, tens of thousands of migrants just happen to be waved into Ceuta at the urging of regime agents.
Meanwhile, Trump and much of the GOP has expressed shock and dismay at the mass migration into Ceuta. Yet, the breakdown of the Spanish borders in North Africa fits nicely into current GOP policy. Or, as Thomas Massie put it on X/Twitter, ”Don’t fall for the fake Fox/GOP outrage. Two weeks ago the House passed a bill that greenlighted the transfer of Spanish territory to Morocco. Every Republican except me voted for it, but now THEY are acting shocked at the invasion.”
Don’t fall for the fake Fox/GOP outrage. Two weeks ago the House passed a bill that greenlighted the transfer of Spanish territory to Morocco. Every Republican except me voted for it, but now THEY are acting shocked at the invasion.https://t.co/a7ROEAtoODhttps://t.co/886sJycfeL pic.twitter.com/dK5vqMA2Vu
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) August 1, 2026
Nor can it be ignored that, while the US has been cozying up the Moroccan police state, the administration has repeatedly denounced Spain for Spain’s refusal to join Washington in backing Israeli war crimes against the Gazans, and the US-Israeli war against Iran.
It’s increasingly difficult to believe that Morocco’s latest move against Spain is the result of a series of mere coincidences that all just happen to result in “migration blackmail”—to use a phrase from Sarah Whitson at Responsible Statecraft— against Spain, and which forwards the goals of Washington, Rabat, and Tel Aviv simultaneously.
Moreover, the US’s alliance follows Washington’s well-established policy of embracing repressive regimes so long as those regimes are friendly toward the State of Israel. (Criticizing the state religion of Islam is a criminal offense in Morocco, there is no freedom of speech, and the regime cracks down on political protests of all sorts.) This scheme includes US support for the blood-soaked dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, the socialist-militarist state of Egypt, and the “former” Al Qaida terrorists that presently control Syria. Morocco continues in this tradition, enjoying financial support from the US—paid for by US taxpayers, of course.
There is no reason at all for the US regime to force American taxpayers to support this. Yet, we are repeatedly told that the US must support the Israeli regime because it is allegedly a beacon of “democracy.” And yet support for Israel somehow requires that the US perennially support some of the worse and most repressive regimes in the world. Now, as the GOP openly states, US policy is to support territorial gains for a repressive Islamic state at the expense of a European country where there is actual freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and a Christian and Western tradition going back to Roman times. Apparently, the GOP now stands on the side of expunging the last remnants of Western culture in north Africa.
