James Talarico

needs to be kept out.

Anyone who does us harm needs to be deported immediately.

Public safety is the most important thing a government does.

The most important thing the government does.

Well, I'm against chaos.

And I think what most Texans are upset about in our immigration system is the chaos they see, particularly on our southern border.

I think most people around the world like where they live as much as I love America.

A lot of people love their homes, but if someone wants to come and fill one of the 8 million jobs that needs to be filled, if they want to do the work that none of us want to do, I heard from an avocado farmer in California who said in 20 years of business, never had an American citizen apply to work there, not one.

So if you want to come and pick our fruit, if you want to pack our meat, if you want to pave our highways and build our buildings, then we need your help because we are a growing country and we have a growing economy and immigrants are the fuel that keeps that fire burning.

But what people are seeing and what people are upset about is the fact that we have no idea who some of these people streaming in over the border are and what they mean to do.

And I just think most Americans can't wrap their head around why is it that we can't have an orderly

process that keeps everybody safe, both native-born Americans and migrants and immigrants, hiring more immigration judges, relieving the visa backlog, reforming our asylum system.

All of these things are ways that we could create a system that welcomes the stranger and keeps us all safe at the same time.

For some reason, Americans and Texans, they look at one party, our party, as pro-immigrant and anti-security.

Then they throw us out.

They get Donald Trump and his party.

It is pro-security, anti-immigrant, and they hate that too.

So most people want us to hold both of these values at the same time, and I think it's actually really possible.

Not an expert on the National Democratic Party, but I will say just from my observations, being in a red state, someone who flipped a Trump district and was able to build this kind of coalition, our national party is pretty condescending to people.

Here's an example.