By Ryan Helfenbein, Op-ed contributor Thursday, February 05, 2026Billie Eilish speaks on CBS on Jan. 24, 2020. | YouTube/CBS Sunday Morning
At this year’s 68th Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish won the “Song of the Year” for “Wildflower,” which she wrote with her brother Finneas O’Conneal. And as most awards shows go with the commercial and mainstream left, Eilish didn’t have a Jelly Roll-style speech thanking Jesus Christ for saving her life or declaring that Jesus is for everyone.
Instead, she used that moment to virtue signal, declaring, “No one is illegal on stolen land,” while wearing an “ICE OUT” pin and adding an explicative to her speech. As expected, the crowd received it with overwhelming applause and a standing ovation. When it comes to the Grammys, there are no surprises — except for pleasant surprise of Jelly Roll’s speech, which did declare that Jesus Christ and the Gospel are, in fact, for everyone. We love that.
But Eilish’s words are exactly what we’d expect.
Within hours, the Tongva tribe, Native Americans whose ancestral lands sit beneath Eilish’s multimillion-dollar Los Angeles mansion, made a statement thanking Eilish but also acknowledging the irony that her home sits on their land.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, quickly noted that land acknowledgments are meaningless without material action. Matt Walsh quipped, “Land cannot be stolen if no one is illegal.”
This is perhaps the greatest irony of all.
But this isn’t just about one celebrity’s ignorance or hypocrisy. Eilish’s comments represent a broader pattern of historical ignorance and moral posturing that’s become standard on the Left. That’s why it’s critical to respond. So how should we think about this? Here are five points.
First, Eilish’s statement reveals stunning hypocrisy that exposes the emptiness of progressive performative virtue signaling
Billie Eilish lives in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles, built on land she claims is stolen. Yet she has taken zero action to remedy this supposed theft. She hasn’t returned property. Where’s her remorse and where is her generosity?
She wore the trendy political pin renouncing ICE and dropped some profanity on the stage, then she returned to her gated community with private security. If you truly believe that it is stolen, then you should act out on your moral beliefs.
Second, her claim is historically ignorant, erasing the historical realities of U.S. land acquisition through legal treaties and purchases
Between 1778 and 1871, the United States signed approximately 368 treaties, and some with Native American tribes, ceding over 1.5 billion acres through legal agreements that involved cash payments, annuities, and land exchanges. These were not acts of conquest — they were negotiated transactions that gave fair market value at the time they were signed.
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 added 828,000 square miles for $15 million to the French government. America purchased Florida from Spain in 1821, annexed Texas in 1845, acquired the Oregon Territory in 1846, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming from the Mexican government in 1848, and Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867. All of these were done formally by treaty and included money for land.
Hundreds of treaties were also signed with the U.S. government and native American populations that hunted on those lands. That is not to say that the American government always did it perfectly, but it completely overturns the Marxist lie that everything was taken by theft.
Calling all American land “stolen” ignores overwhelming historical realities.
America was not uniquely evil. America, in the long history of nations, was uniquely good when it came to westward expansion and conquest.
Third, the logical contradiction between “no one is illegal” and “stolen land” undermines her entire argument
If land can be stolen, then borders and property rights must have legitimacy. If someone can steal land, then someone else must have a rightful claim to it. But if “no one is illegal,” then borders are meaningless, property claims are invalid, and the very concept of theft becomes incoherent. You can’t simultaneously argue that borders are illegitimate while claiming land was stolen across those same borders.
While the Left may not care, we must all think about it: The statement is self-refuting. As Matt Walsh put it perfectly: “Land cannot be stolen if no one is illegal.” Either property rights and borders matter, or they don’t. Eilish wants to condemn America’s borders while living securely behind her own gates.
She wants to delegitimize property claims while profiting from multimillion-dollar real estate holdings. This isn’t thoughtful political commentary. This is sloppy thinking dressed up as moral courage.
Fourth, her selective outrage reveals anti-American bias while ignoring identical histories worldwide
Every nation on earth exists on land that was once occupied by someone else. The British Isles were conquered by the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and the Normans. Europe’s borders have shifted countless times through conquest and throughout history. The Middle East, Asia, Africa — all shaped by waves of migration, displacement, and territorial conquest.
Yet Eilish doesn’t stand at international awards ceremonies, showing condemnation for other nations as illegitimate. She reserves that criticism exclusively for America as if America is uniquely guilty. If Eilish cared, she would give something in return or support specific policies that would immediately remedy what was wrongfully taken.
Instead, her focus is simply on ICE.
Finally, her attack on ICE is dangerously naive, ignoring the agency’s critical role in combating human trafficking and crime
ICE has made over 100,000 arrests since the Trump administration took over, predominantly in states like Texas, Florida, and California. Many of those arrests are of the most violent criminal offenders: child rapists, MS-13 gang members, drug traffickers, and the most violent offenders of the law. They aren’t Dreamers or college students whose visas have expired.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died due to illegal immigration. Most of the ICE agents responsible for arrests are actually Hispanic Americans. Do not believe the propaganda on the Left that wants to reduce this all to racial identities or intersectionality.
Christians should always remember that, yes, America is a nation. Yes, Jesus Christ, who is Lord of Heaven and earth, has appointed the time of nations, including their borders. Jesus Christ is not lawless, nor does he promote lawlessness. We have a responsibility to steward the nation where God has planted us, whether it be the United States or any other nation around the world.
And if we’re going to have serious conversations about immigration, Indigenous rights, and American history, we need more than profanity-laced slogans and performative theater from a celebrity stage. We need real solutions that solve problems for the average American.
Make no mistake, the average American did vote for this. The average American does support this. The average American is exactly who has the right to the nation in which they were born in.
The American nation belongs only to the American people — whether Billie Eilish or the Grammy Awards realizes it or not.
Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
Ryan Helfenbein is the Executive Director of the Standing for Freedom Center and the Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement at Liberty University. Ryan hosts “The Give Me Liberty” weekly podcast and is also a weekly contributor on “In Focus with Alison Steinberg.”If you’re interested in having Ryan as a guest on your show or speak at your next event, contact us at freedom@liberty.edu.Follow Ryan on Twitter at @RHelfenbein.
