During an interview in Dallas, Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said he would vote against Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security, saying he would oppose any nominee unwilling to dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he called a “secret police force.”
Appearing on The Bulwark Podcast with host Tim Miller, Talarico was asked directly, “Would you vote against Markwayne Mullin for a cabinet position?” He responded, “I would be a no on any potential secretary who is not willing to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that’s actually focused on public safety.”
Talarico elaborated on his position by referencing his background, stating, “Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, on the west side of the city, and I taught a lot of undocumented students, and those students tended to be my most patriotic students.” He continued, “They understood something about this country that a lot of us who are native born forget: that this is supposed to be the land of opportunity, that this is supposed to be the place where dreams come true.”
He characterized those students as having “believed in this country, even when this country didn’t believe in them,” and argued that current enforcement actions are harmful, saying, “The fact that we have the most powerful politicians in the country terrorizing my former students and their families—people who work hard every day to contribute to this economy and to this country—to me, is immoral. It’s unconscionable. It’s unacceptable, and it has to end.”
Talarico also outlined what he described as an alternative approach to immigration enforcement, stating, “We should be cracking down on the cartels, not our communities. We should be deporting gang members, not small business owners. We should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies.” He added that “Both parties have failed us on this issue over the last 30 years,” including “the failures of my party” and “the failures of the Biden administration.” He said those failures “opened the door to this extremism” and led to “masked men and unmarked vehicles kidnapping people off our street.”
He concluded: “Texans and Americans are just looking for leaders who are going to hold two things in their mind at once, being pro immigrant and pro security. We’ve been told those are mutually exclusive, and they’re not.”
Talarico’s remarks come as Mullin’s nomination to serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on March 19 in an 8-7 vote. The committee vote included a break from party lines, with Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) opposing the nomination and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) supporting it, providing the deciding vote to move the nomination forward. A full Senate vote on Mullin’s nomination is expected early next week.
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