Texas Democratic contender disparages border issues as a 'right-wing echo chamber concern' amidst the 2022 immigration crisis.
Two years ago, the Congressman downplayed border issues as mere echo chamber noise among conservatives, despite a spike in border crossings.
Allred, a civil rights attorney and ex-NFL player representing Dallas' northeast, made these comments in February 2022. At this time, the US was witnessing a surge in border crossings compared to the Trump administration and even the previous year under Biden, breaking past records of encounters.
Allred mentioned that most voters were focused on inflation and the economy when asked about Republican midterm candidates running on border issues, crime, inflation, and "wokeism." He asserted that border concerns were not a top priority for Dallas voters, stating that they were still resentful about Covid-19.
In February 2022, US Customs and Border Protection reported 166,010 encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border, a significant increase from the 101,099 encounters in the same month the previous year, marking a 64% rise.
This surge was part of a larger trend in 2022, with 2.4 million migrant encounters, a dramatic increase compared to the Trump administration's highest annual total (1.15 million) in fiscal year 2019. Fiscal year 2021, spanning part of Biden's first year, saw 1.95 million total enforcement actions.
Despite his dismissal of the political significance of the border at the time, a June 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that 34% of Texas voters identified immigration and border security as their biggest concerns for the state.
Today, border issues are an even more significant worry for Texas voters. An April poll by the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project indicated that a majority of Texas voters viewed migrants crossing the US-Mexico border as a crisis (48%) or a very serious problem but not a crisis (23%).
In his campaign to unseat Cruz, Allred is now investing $380,000 in an online ad dedicated solely to the border issue. Allred did not publicly announce the ad, unlike his previous ads.
The ad states, "I'm Colin Allred. Fentanyl is flooding into our country. Our border is broken, and so are our politics. To fix it, we have to go after the cartels and fix the border... I'm Colin Allred. I'm running for Senate to fix this problem."
The ad has been shown online over 11 million times and has cost Allred at least $280,000 to promote two versions, running 30 and 15 seconds long on Google. On Facebook, he has spent over $100,000 running the ad.
In a statement to CNN, Allred campaign spokesperson Josh Stewart said, "Since his first days in Congress, Congressman Allred has focused on bipartisan solutions to fix our broken immigration system and secure our border. During his 12 years in the Senate, Ted Cruz has shown that he only wants to politicize the crisis at the border and will never be part of a bipartisan solution."
A change in stance on the border
Following his 2018 election to Congress by flipping a GOP-held seat in the Dallas suburbs, Allred has been working to harden his stance on the border and immigration enforcement ahead of the November statewide election.
He joined a Democratic-led border security task force this spring and supported the border security bill introduced earlier this year that was later vetoed by Republicans. Although the bill did not contain provisions for any undocumented immigrants, including a pathway to citizenship, which Allred has consistently advocated for, he called it a "much-needed step" on immigration reform.
Allred has also revised his rhetoric on a border wall, which he had previously condemned as "racist" and "ineffective." In January 2018, during his campaign to unseat GOP Rep. Pete Sessions, he pledged to tear down the wall if it was enacted instead of offering a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented. However, in 2019, he said that physical barriers can sometimes be "appropriate."
In October 2023, following the Biden administration's decision to build fresh sections of the border wall along the US-Mexico frontier, using funds previously earmarked during the Trump era, Allred expressed approval.
"This moves are crucial for alleviating the strain on border communities in Texas who are swamped by the ongoing influx of migrants," he shared with The Hill, qualifying it as "merely a partial solution."
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In his shift in stance, Allred has criticized his previous dismissal of border issues as a "right-wing echo chamber concern," acknowledging the significant rise in migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border. Despite this change, a poll conducted in June 2021 revealed that 34% of Texas voters identified immigration and border security as their biggest concerns for the state.
