El-Sayed says America owes the world. Michigan families come first.

As El-Sayed seeks a Senate seat that could help decide control, his positions on immigration and girls’ sports put Michigan families’ priorities on the ballot.

Abdul El-Sayed, now the Democratic nominee to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters, told Detroit's WDET during his 2018 campaign for governor¹, “We as a country, I believe, owe it to the world to open our doors.” On Oct. 10, 2026, TheBlaze posted the clip², and Jesse Kelly quote-posted it: “Immigration has become the only issue that matters.³ The communist believes this. And he’s right. Whoever wins the immigration battle wins the war.” The communist believes this. And he’s right. Whoever wins the immigration battle wins the war.””

Kelly's word for the candidate is his own. The line itself says whom El-Sayed believes a nation's leaders owe first: the world. For Michigan families, immigration is a family fight, because a country's first obligation runs to the mothers, fathers and children already inside its walls.

“We as a country, I believe, owe it to the world to open our doors.”

Abdul El-Sayed

The open-doors line has a counterpart on the debate stage. In the Senate debate, El-Sayed was asked about an undocumented immigrant who committed a violent crime and answered: “Yes, but you don't have to do that by violating the whole Constitution.”⁴ CBS News also reports that El-Sayed has called for abolishing ICE. Put the two together and his yes to deporting a violent offender arrives with conditions attached, from a candidate who wants the immigration enforcement agency gone.

Rogers answered from the other side of the stage: he called the Minnesota operations earlier this year “probably not appropriate,” said the administration made an adjustment, and said agents are targeting murderers and rapists who were here illegally⁴. The Midwesterner reports that the Department of Homeland Security's “Worst of the Worst” database lists 322 illegal immigrants removed from Michigan with prior convictions, among them fondling a child and sexual exploitation of a minor¹.

2018El-Sayed made the open-doors statement in a WDET interview during his governor campaign
2024Rogers signed the Stand With Women Commitment during his Senate campaign
August 2026El-Sayed said sports eligibility should be decided by sports governing bodies
Oct. 10, 2026TheBlaze posted the clip and Jesse Kelly quote-posted it

322

people removed from Michigan with prior convictions

El-Sayed's record also asks who sets the rules girls live under. During his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, he supported protecting young people's access to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams “of choice.” In an August 2026 interview, he said sports eligibility should be decided by the people who govern sports, without specifying restrictions he would support. Pressed on eligibility, he turned to healthcare and affordability, according to OutKick's account of the Fox News interview⁵. A rule left to sports bodies gives a girl and her parents no vote of their own.

He is not alone. Iowa Democratic nominee Josh Turek gave The New York Times the same answer in July: he does not believe biological males should compete against females, but governing organizations should decide eligibility. OutKick reports the issue has divided Democrats heading into the 2026 midterms and repeatedly put candidates on the defensive⁵. El-Sayed's pivot to healthcare is what that defense looks like.

The same handoff appears in medicine. El-Sayed has argued the government should not restrict sex-change procedures, according to Fox News Digital, and he said “whole a--” doctors like himself should be allowed to make their own determinations for patients' treatment plans⁶. Those positions put decisions about girls' sports and children's care in the hands of governing bodies and medical professionals. Michigan parents should ask who answers to them when a governing body or a clinic decides about their child.

El-Sayed's case deserves a hearing in his own terms. His strongest appeal is the one he made in that WDET interview: refugees believe in the American dream more than anyone, because they believe in an America where they too can have a better life¹. On medicine, he argues that medical decisions should be left to patients, parents and doctors⁶, according to Fox News.

Compassion for refugees does not settle whose claim comes first, and naming parents beside doctors does not answer whether parents should be free to protect their children from sex-change procedures, or whether government has a duty to protect minors. The same goes for the handoff to sports governing bodies: girls and their families still live under rules set beyond their household. Parents must remain central to decisions about their children's lives.

Michigan is where that choice gets made, and the margin is thin. CBS News reports that most polls show a razor-thin race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, and that the contest could decide Senate control⁴.

On the other side, Rogers signed Independent Women's Voice's Stand With Women Commitment during his 2024 Senate campaign and said biological men should not be competing with daughters. El-Sayed's answer to the same question is a handoff to governing bodies⁵. Michigan parents can compare the two answers themselves, and in a race this close⁴ their votes settle it.

El-Sayed, who says America owes the world open doors³, should answer plainly: whom does a senator owe first, the world or Michigan's families?

El-Sayed says America owes the world. Michigan families come first.

Sources