Texas Senate candidate Rep. James Talarico (D) has called for an end to President Donald Trump’s travel and immigration bans from countries have been particularly vulnerable to terrorism.
One day after after a deadly shooting in Austin, Texas, on March 1, reports have said that Talarico worked to sidestep concerns about Islamic terrorism. The suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, allegedly opened fire at a bar scene in Austin while wearing a hoodie with the words “property of Allah” on the front.
“I believe in the power of prayer. I believe prayer changes lives. But there is something profoundly cynical in asking God to solve a problem we’re not willing to solve ourselves,” Talarico said in the wake of the deadly shooting that left three dead and a dozen others wounded.
“We prayed, and God sent lawmakers with commonsense gun safety proposals like universal background checks, red flag laws,” he continued.
In May 2021, Talarico wrote on X, “Texas has the largest population of Muslims in the country. Today I introduced legislation to add Imams to the list of religious officials who can perform marriage ceremonies in our state. As-salamu alaykum, y’all.”
He added, “Thank you to the Muslim activists who helped me write House Bill 2039. Big shout out to @InsiAziz from @EmgageAction for testifying at today’s hearing!”
Emerge Action is a group that has sought to end what has been derided by leftists and erroneously called a “Muslim ban,” or Trump’s travel and immigration ban from countries that have high incidents of terrorism.
Those countries are “Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.”
As former Breitbart News senior-editor-at-large Joel Pollak wrote in 2020, there has never been a “Muslim ban.” The ban applied to countries with problems with terrorism, many of which were identified by the Obama-Biden administration as being particularly vulnerable to terrorism:
But there is no “Muslim ban,” and there never was. What Democrats called a “Muslim ban” was an executive order issued on January 27, 2017, that barred tourism and immigration from seven countries previously identified by the Obama-Biden administration as being particularly vulnerable to terrorism, partly because their internal record-keeping was substandard. These seven nations — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen — happened to be Muslim-majority countries, but there was no blanket ban on Muslims from other Middle Eastern countries or large Muslim countries like Indonesia.
“Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) considered a “pause” in Syrian refugees, given the security vulnerabilities and the possibility that fighters from the so-called ‘Islamic State’ might infiltrate into the country,” Pollak added.
Talarico wrote in 2017, “Proud to stand with our Muslim neighbors today. Texas is big enough for all of us. #NoBanNoWall“
Talarico has said that many people of other faiths are more “Christ-like” than Christians in the Texas legislature.
“I have met so many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikh Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics who are more Christ-like than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas legislature. It is about how you treat other people,” he said.
He posted on Facebook in 2016 that he was proud to campaign for Sean Hassan to “piss off” President Trump.
He wrote, “Going door-to-door to elect a smart, progressive, Muslim-American…. just to piss off our president-elect.”
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