Texas Republicans have long used immigration enforcement as an issue to win elections and cement their hold on state leadership. James Talarico, who’s running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican John Cornyn, believes 2026 is the year that Democrats can claim the issue as their own.
To drive the point home, he stood outside the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Far East El Paso for a news conference Saturday.
“I would say this current extremism on immigration is not popular in Texas, and I think the data indicates that,” Talarico said in an interview with El Paso Matters after the news conference. “Certainly, traveling across the state and talking to people across the political spectrum, people are disturbed and angry about what’s happening in this facility right here,” he said of the ICE detention facility known as Camp East Montana.
Talarico said most Texans and Americans “are pro immigrant and pro security.”
“And in the Democratic Party … especially during the Biden administration, they saw a party that was pro immigrant and wasn’t very concerned about security. And so they threw them out, they brought in the Republicans, President Trump in particular, and now they’re seeing a party that is pro security and anti immigrant. And so they are looking desperately for leaders who are going to be pro immigrant and pro security at the same time,” he said.
Talarico, a state representative from north Austin, came to El Paso on Saturday as part of a statewide tour as early voting continues for the March 3 Democratic primary. In addition to the news conference at Camp East Montana, he had a rally at the Fire Fighters Hall on the Eastside and a fundraiser in West El Paso.
His main rival for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, is scheduled to visit El Paso on Sunday.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary, whose three main candidates are Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston. Both primaries have become increasingly charged as the election draws closer.
Talarico said El Paso has long been special to him, because he came to visit his grandparents when he was a child. He said his grandfather, Jimmy Causey, was a preacher, and his grandmother, Betty Causey, was a teacher, both occupations he later pursued.
“I just remember the long trip in the car from Austin to El Paso, and I remember thinking this was such a magical place,” Talarico said. “I had never seen mountains before.”
Talarico said it’s important that political leaders look out for El Paso and other communities that haven’t always shared in Texas’ economic gains.
“We cannot just have economic activity and prosperity in the big cities and the big suburbs. That is unsustainable, and so it’s why I’m spending so much time on the border, why I’m spending so much time in rural communities across the state, because I want them to know that as U.S. senator, I’m going to use every tool in my toolbox to promote economic development to attract businesses,” he said.
Talarico also said he would put a district office in El Paso, the state’s sixth-largest city, something no Texas senator has done since Phil Gramm retired in 2001.
“I don’t think Seth Krasne would let us get away with not having one here,” he said of his campaign manager, a 2015 graduate of Coronado High School.
The post At El Paso ICE facility, James Talarico argues for ‘pro-immigrant, pro-security’ approach appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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