Immigration is taking center stage in Texas’ Senate race. Here’s what Colin Allred’s and Ted Cruz’s records show.

Sign up for the We the Texans newsletter to receive twice-monthly updates on our year-long initiative dedicated to boosting civic engagement and chronicling how democracy is experienced in Texas.

---

Unlike many Texas Democrats before him, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred wants to talk about the border.

In particular, he wants to talk about how U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who he’s challenging this November, helped spike major bipartisan border legislation earlier this year — part of Allred’s broader effort to paint Cruz as an obstructionist whose hardline stances have hindered long-overdue immigration reform.

At the same time, Allred is trying to define his own relatively unknown immigration views before Cruz can do it for him, running ads that call himself “tough” on the border and embracing a mix of proposals bolstering border security and expanding pathways to legal status.

But the notion that Allred is tough on the border is laughable to Cruz, who says his Democratic foe is trying to have it both ways and showing a newfound interest in the topic only now that he’s running for statewide office. Cruz, who is also making immigration the linchpin of his campaign, said Allred is papering over a voting record and past comments that show the Dallas Democrat more aligned with President Joe Biden’s unpopular border policies than he would have voters believe.

With three and half months left until Election Day, both candidates are campaigning on border and immigration issues: Allred is running campaign ads that tout headlines about him breaking with his party to condemn Biden, while Cruz laced into the president’s policies in a lively speech at the Republican National Convention Tuesday, blaming Biden for several recent high-profile murders allegedly committed by immigrants who entered the country illegally. The border-centric campaigns are a nod to public opinion polls that have repeatedly shown Texas voters ranking immigration and the border as their most pressing issues — and voicing overwhelming disapproval of Biden’s approach, as record numbers of migrants have attempted to enter Texas from Mexico for most of his term.

Cruz, asked about the attacks on his alleged intransigence on the bipartisan immigration package, said he opposed the bill because it was “terrible policy” that failed to “actually secure the border.” He said he’s also helped pass less visible but important border measures — like allowing real-time data sharing between Border Patrol and the Coast Guard — and has seen his own “commonsense” bills get shot down by Democrats. One example, Cruz said, is his proposal to require mandatory minimum prison sentences for those with an aggravated felony conviction who re-enter the country illegally.

“Over the past decade I’ve repeatedly authored and introduced strong border legislation, and Democrats like Allred have repeatedly refused to agree to anything that would actually secure the border,” Cruz said in an email to The Texas Tribune.

Allred disputed the idea that he has only recently made the border a priority, pointing to his ties to the border city of Brownsville, where his mother is from and his grandfather worked as a U.S. Customs officer. He acknowledged that “too often, Democrats have failed to be serious” about responding to border crises, though he also pointed the finger at Cruz and other Republicans for Congress’ long-running failure to pass a major immigration overhaul.

“One of my biggest frustrations with Sen. Cruz is that he's had 12 years to try and enact any kind of reform — whether it's comprehensive or even just targeted — to try and help us do something about what's been happening at the border. And he has, every single time, refused,” Allred said in an interview.

Even with his more proactive approach, though, Allred faces an uphill climb shaking his party’s brand among Texas voters, who have routinely said they trust Republicans over Democrats on border and immigration matters. Andrew Smith, a political science professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said Allred is walking a tightrope.

“If he doesn't go tough enough, if you will, on securing the border, he's not going to get those centrist and moderate voters that are willing to vote against Cruz,” Smith said. “But if he does get quote-unquote too tough, he risks alienating the younger, more progressive wing of the Democratic Party.”

Allred’s border record

In the Democratic primary earlier this year, Allred’s border stance came under fire from the left over his vote for a GOP resolution condemning Biden’s “open-borders policies.” Allred’s rival in the race, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio, blasted Allred for throwing Biden “under the bus … just for political expediency.”

At the time, Allred said it was a tough vote that he saw as a way to show he did not support the “status quo.” A spokesperson for Cruz’s campaign called the vote “cowardly flip-flopping” after Allred had "consistently voted with his party for reckless border policies that benefit the undocumented, while weakening our country and its borders."

Allred said he has made it clear when he supports Biden’s border policies — like with last month’s executive order that halts asylum claims when illegal crossings hit a certain point — and he has spoken out where he disapproves. He said his vote for the Republican border resolution was a prime example, showing “I disagreed with what I thought was a much-delayed response to what had been an obvious crisis for some time.”

Cruz said if Allred really felt that way, he should have gotten behind House Republicans’ wide-ranging border crackdown last year.

The GOP border package passed the House without any Democratic votes. Cruz called it “the most comprehensive border security legislation in decades” and introduced a version in the Senate, though Democrats in the upper chamber had already made clear it was dead on arrival.

The proposal would have restarted construction on a border wall, restricted asylum eligibility, required migrants to wait out asylum claims in Mexico and stiffened penalties for overstaying visas. Democrats panned the bill for focusing only on tougher enforcement and said it was too draconian.

Allred said while he might support some aspects of the measure, the overall package was an “unserious partisan messaging bill” that never had any chance to become law.

“It was only intended to be used by folks in an election like this to say, ‘well, you didn't support this,’” he said.

Instead, Allred supports a bill penned by U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and Florida Republican Rep. Maria Salazar that includes a mix of security-minded features and policies addressing legal immigration and the status of undocumented people in the U.S.

That package, which failed to gain traction in the GOP-controlled House, would fund more border personnel and surveillance technology and require employers to eventually use E-Verify, the electronic service that checks employees’ immigration status. It also proposes expanding visa programs for temporary and skilled workers; granting some undocumented immigrants legal status if they pay a fee and pass a criminal background check; and establishing “humanitarian campuses” at busy areas of the U.S.-Mexico border where asylum seekers would temporarily stay while their claims are processed.

“We cannot secure the border without fixing our legal immigration system,” Allred said, arguing the crisis is fueled by “the fact that [the system] doesn't work and that it's so broken that folks feel like they have no legal way to come to the country.”

Sharon Navarro, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said Allred is on the right track strategically trying to convey support for a bipartisan approach, though she noted that voters often tune out policy specifics in campaigns dominated by sound bites.

“It's a sound political strategy, but it's very difficult, because right now all voters want to hear is, can we stop the border? Can you stop the flow of immigrants?” Navarro said. “And so, short of that, I don't think they're convinced or want to hear the details.”

The Escobar-Salazar bill also includes funding for physical barriers along the border, a concept Allred backed in his first year in Congress. But he also previously called former President Donald Trump’s wall proposal “racist” and “ineffective,” comments that have drawn flak from Cruz.

Allred said physical barriers make “all the sense in the world” in certain spots and should be treated as “one component” of the country’s border security system. He contrasted that with Trump’s idea of building a wall “from sea to shining sea.”

“I've never supported, and won't ever support, this idea that we need to have some kind of symbol that people are not welcome,” Allred said of a full-fledged border wall.

Recently, Cruz has been calling on Allred to talk about the recent killing of a 12-year-old Houston girl, Jocelyn Nungaray, who authorities say was murdered by two Venezuelan migrants who entered the country illegally. The suspects were apprehended by Border Patrol earlier this year and released into the country to await immigration court proceedings, federal authorities said; Cruz recently filed legislation aimed at keeping migrants in custody if detention beds are available.

In his emailed response, Cruz pointed to Nungaray’s death as an example of how border policies favored by Allred “allow monsters into our country who have assaulted and murdered Americans.” The senator’s campaign has claimed there has been a “drastic increase in crimes by illegal aliens,” and Cruz suggested as much in his Tuesday convention speech, though a recent study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that migrants who entered the country illegally are convicted of homicide in Texas at lower rates than native-born residents. There do not appear to be any data showing a recent uptick in the rate of violent crime among undocumented immigrants.

Asked about Nungaray’s murder and Cruz’s contention that his preferred policies were to blame, Allred said, “I just think Jocelyn’s murder was a tragedy, and I can't think of anything more shameful than someone like Ted Cruz attempting to use that as a political attack.”

Cruz’s border record

At the same time, Allred has sought to refocus attention on Cruz’s border record, questioning whether the GOP senator’s hawkish stances have actually produced results. He has particularly emphasized Cruz’s objection to a bipartisan border package in February that included an array of border restrictions, but died after most Senate Republicans voted to block it on the grounds that it was too lax. A number of GOP senators came out against the bill after Trump called it an “open borders betrayal” that would benefit Democrats politically.

Cruz was one of the first Republicans out of the gate blasting the proposal, which aimed to clamp down on asylum, limit the president’s authority to admit people using parole in certain cases and send aid to help organizations and local governments pay for migrant services.

Among his objections to the bill, Cruz said it would have “codified” so-called catch-and-release policy, which he called “the principal cause” of the uptick in crossings seen under Biden. He also said the bill would have “normalized” allowing 5,000 migrants to enter illegally every day— referring to a provision requiring the shutdown of all border crossings between ports of entry if unlawful crossings exceeded a daily average of 5,000 over a week, or reached 8,500 in a single day. Supporters had pitched it as a tool to limit unauthorized crossings, which were exceeding 5,000 a day, but critics including Cruz said the bar was too high.

At the time, Cruz panned Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for initially signaling support for the bill. He told Fox News that McConnell had ensured “every single Democrat running for office” would say “gosh, I wanted to secure the border, but the mean old Republicans wouldn’t let us.” He also predicted, though, that voters “will not be fooled” by the attempt to provide “political cover” for Democrats.

Allred has seized on the “political cover” comment, framing it as an admission that Republicans opposed the bill to deny Democrats a political win. A TV ad recently launched by Allred’s campaign attacks Cruz for opposing what was “actually a good plan backed by sheriffs and border officers.”

However, Cruz said he also disagreed with a provision in the bill that would have immediately granted work permits to asylum seekers while they waited to have their asylum cases decided, as long as they first passed an initial screening. Cruz said the change would have “incentivized greater illegal entry.”

Cruz said he continues to follow the immigration vision he has long espoused, summarized by four words: “legal—good; illegal—bad.” It is the same slogan Cruz has used while establishing his brand as an aggressive fighter for tough border restrictions, from his opposition to the bipartisan so-called Gang of Eight bill early in his Senate term to his immigration-fueled 2016 presidential bid, where he sought to match Trump’s hardline stances.

“I support legal immigration, and want a pathway for hardworking, freedom-loving people to come legally into this land of opportunity,” Cruz said. “But right now, cartels are exploiting our open border to make billions of dollars trafficking drugs and people across the border.”

Cruz outlined a handful of bills and amendments he has passed into law with support from Democrats, including a measure providing the Coast Guard with a long-range radar system at its South Padre Island station. He also authored a bill, signed into law by Biden, that directs the federal government to find better ways to detect and combat an emerging street drug called xylazine, a type of animal tranquilizer that officials have found mixed in fentanyl smuggled across the border.

“I will say this: While the border issue is politically divisive, I've done everything I can to secure it and fight the drug epidemic in our country,” Cruz said.

Disclosure: University of Texas at San Antonio has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

---

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!