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Editor's note: This story was updated at 6:20 p.m. to include a statement from the Paxton campaign.
Border security has become a critical issue in politics and is seen as a weakness for Democrats, but James Talarico, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, is making it evident he isn’t avoiding the issue.
Talarico was critical of former President Joe Biden’s border policies, yet he also condemned President Trump's plan to build a border wall through Big Bend calling it “a monument to corruption.”
During a campaign stop Monday in Terrell County, Talarico presented what he described as a “common-sense” border security plan.
Talarico’s proposal would hire more Border Patrol agents, expand surveillance technology and add immigration judges to reduce the asylum backlog.
He also wants Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus its resources on people who pose serious public-safety threats rather than on families, children and longtime residents without serious criminal records.
The Texas state representative blasted the Trump administration’s plan to build a $1.7 billion border wall through the environmentally sensitive Big Bend area.
He called the Big Bend border wall “useless,” and said it is the result of “no-bid contracts and backroom deals.”
“I think Joe Rogan said it best. They're doing this for a nice contract. We need more Border Patrol agents,” Talarico said.
Talarico, however, is not opposed to the construction of border walls but he said the government should “focus our resources on physical barriers where they're actually needed.”
“That's the most expensive contract for border wall construction in Texas history, and it's going to the least-trafficked section of the entire southern border and through one of the most sacred parts of Texas,” he said.
Talarico paired his criticism of the Big Bend border wall with a harsh view of Biden’s border protection policy.
“Joe Biden and his administration failed us on our southern border,” Talarico said.
During the Biden administration, Customs and Border Protection logged historic levels of migrant encounters, frequently exceeding 2 million annually. Republican critics point to his rollback of earlier Trump-era restrictions, such as "Remain in Mexico," as a factor for the increase. Throughout his term, border security and immigration were frequently ranked in polling as his worst issues with voters.
Talarico is distancing himself away from the Biden border legacy and saying he is in favor of a solution that is different.
“What most Texans, and I think what most Americans want, is a common-sense approach to border security, one that ensures we have enough Border Patrol agents, we have enough technology, we have enough judges to be able to have an orderly, safe process on our southern border," he said.
Talarico said that is not the situation today. "I think it's what most Texans want, and they're frustrated that they can't seem to get that from either party,” he said.
Talarico’s position on the border wall received support from officials across party lines. Republican Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a retired Border Patrol agent, said barriers make sense in some urban areas, but that technology and additional agents would be more effective in Big Bend. Democratic Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said he supports strategic barriers where they protect communities, while opposing the broader regional project.
The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has consistently championed a hard line on border security and immigration. He has frequently called unauthorized border crossers as part of an “invasion.”
As attorney general he sued the Biden administration to defend “Operation Lone Star” and the practice of deploying miles of razor wire along the Rio Grande and taking control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
Paxton fought to implement Texas' Senate Bill 4, which permits local police to arrest individuals suspected of crossing the border illegally.
TPR reached out to the Ken Paxton campaign for reaction to Talarico’s border security plan, and they provided this statement:
James Talarico has a long streak of lying to voters, but the truth is no one, not a soul, looks at James Talarico and thinks: ’now there’s a guy who will be tough on the cartel.‘ And they would be right because he never has been. James Talarico is a hypocrite who supported the same dangerous Biden open border policies that devastated our communities. He may try talking tough now, but when it comes down to it, he wants America and Texas to be a place of lawlessness and he wants the American dream dead,” said Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton is hosting a "Rally in the Valley" in McAllen Tuesday evening, where he will lay out his border security plan.
