In one of his first major campaign appearances since a bout with the flu forced him out of the spotlight, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico said he would not seek to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an agency but compared their current conduct to that of a "secret police force."
Asked if he supported abolishing ICE, Talarico replied, "No, and I never have. We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this country, but that's not what we're seeing. What we've seen over the last year is a secret police force, and that's what we don't want in this country. We don't want masked men in unmarked vehicles coming through and terrorizing our communities."
Talarico, a Democratic state representative running against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said the Biden Administration had "failed us" in securing the southern border.
Several Democrats, including ones in Texas, have called for significantly overhauling or abolishing ICE following widespread immigration raids under the Trump Administration. Former Congressman Colin Allred, who ran against Ted Cruz for Senate in 2024 and is now seeking a return to Congress, has called to abolish ICE. Congressman Christian Menefee has said ICE "needs to be torn down to the studs."
Asked for further clarification about his vision for the role ICE should play in immigration enforcement, a spokesperson for Talarico only alluded to the candidate's remarks during the town hall appearance and his "extensive prior comments on immigration."
Previously in February, Talarico had said he wanted to "tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that is actually going to focus on public safety." In July, Talarico said during a campaign stop, “ICE should be cracking down on the cartels, not on our communities. ICE should be deporting gang members, not small business owners. ICE should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies.”
His comments Wednesday came during an evening town hall in Fort Worth hosted by CNN and Jubilee. CNN said it had also extended a town hall invitation to Paxton. The two candidates have not debated, despite bipartisan pressure and previous pushes from each campaign.
In criticizing ICE's work under the Trump Administration, Talarico referenced the July killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in the United States without permanent legal status for decades and was shot by an ICE agent in Houston.
"Lorenzo Salgado [Araujo] was a child of God, endowed with infinite worth," Talarico said. "Lorenzo, our fellow Texan, deserves justice. And that's exactly what I'll fight for in the U.S. Senate.”
Representatives from Paxton's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment regarding Talarico's comments on ICE, nor his criticisms of Paxton as "the most corrupt politician in Texas."
In a post on social media, Paxton argued that Talarico "tried to dismantle the oil and gas industry and repeatedly tried to destroy the Texas economy." During the town hall event, Talarico said he would push for both the oil and gas industry and the renewable energy industry.
Paxton also wrote on social media that Talarico "has spent his career embracing the most radical policies imaginable and voting for every tax increase he could. His agenda would tax Texans into oblivion."
Talarico spent much of the town hall appearance positioning himself as a centrist who will work with both parties in the Senate. He also walked back some of his previous statements from his political career. When asked, for example, about a previous statement calling capitalism an "oppressive system," Talarico said he was a capitalist but that the current system of government is "crony capitalism." When asked by a voter who identified as Republican about a statement Talarico made where he called God "non-binary," Talarico said, "When I said that, I was being provocative, and I want to admit that and come clean about that, but I think what I was saying is actually not controversial theologically."
"I will always do what’s best for Texas, even if that means standing up to my own party," he said. "If the Democratic Party is going after the good-paying oil and gas jobs here in Texas, I’m going to stand up against them. I’m going to call out Democrats like Joe Biden who failed us on our southern border because we need border security here in Texas."
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