Tipsheet

Here's a Reality Check on James Talarico's Immigration Flip-Flop

Joseph Chalfant
Joseph Chalfant  |  June 15, 2026 6:00 PM

For Democrat U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico, the November midterms are a nothing but a campaign to moderate his stance on a policy issue that Texans hold dearly: immigration. His long, radical history will make that herculean task nearly impossible.

Talarico’s about-face on the issue came one week ago after the candidate participated in a softball interview overflowing with flip-flops from his progressive past. One of the most notable instances of him retreating from his progressive priors came when he declared himself a “border security Democrat” who had “called out Joe Biden for failing to secure our southern border.”

Talarico’s statement was nothing less than a bald-faced lie. Fox News asked the Talarico campaign repeatedly whether or not they could produce any evidence that he had ever made a statement condemning Biden’s border disaster and were unable to. The only Democrat he seems to have ever critiqued for their border policy was President Barack Obama, whom he labeled the “Deporter-in-Chief” because he believed Obama to be too conservative on the issue.

Evidence does exist, however, of Talarico perhaps being the most radical progressive on immigration policy to run for state-wide office in Texas history. Talarico campaigned for and endorsed San Antonio radical Julian Castro in the 2020 Democrat presidential primaries, labeling Castro as his “hero.”

Castro was a noted immigration extremist who supported the decriminalization of border crossings and stated that illegal immigration was neither a national security or criminal justice issue. He further called for Trump’s border wall to be deconstructed, begged for taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens, and campaigned for a sweeping amnesty and the release of detained illegals. In fact, Castro was unable to name anyone he believed that shouldn’t be allowed into the United States.

Talarico is no stranger to pushing hyper-progressive immigration policy himself. He believes that illegal aliens, whom he refers to as “undocumented Americans,” are “his constituents” and posted educational materials on social media to aid them in evading federal law enforcement. He also stated that you were not a Christian if you did not accept “the stranger seeking asylum at our southern border.”

Talarico has also taken aim at President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, precisely the policy that caused Trump to win commandingly in Texas in 2024. Talarico labeled ICE as a “secret police force that is terrorizing communities” and called for a “tearing down” of the agency, and attacked border wall bills.

Talarico has just 141 days until the midterm elections to somehow escape his lengthy history as one of the most virulent immigration radicals in the country.