James Talarico, who has been described by The Daily Wire as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, said during a live taping of The Bulwark podcast in Dallas that undocumented students he taught were often his “most patriotic” students, and criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “secret police” force.
James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate, said during a live taping of The Bulwark podcast in Dallas that undocumented students he taught while working as a middle-school teacher were often his “most patriotic” students.
“I taught a lot of undocumented students, and those students tended to be my most patriotic students,” Talarico said during the event, according to The Daily Wire.
Talarico continued that those students, in his view, believed in the United States as a place of opportunity “even when this country didn’t believe in them,” The Daily Wire reported.
The Daily Wire said the remarks were made during a live taping of The Bulwark podcast with host Tim Miller and that Talarico also criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “secret police” force.
The comments circulated more widely after a March 20, 2026 social media post by the account Western Lensman that included video of the exchange, The Daily Wire reported.
The Daily Wire also pointed to earlier statements by Talarico about border policy, including remarks from what it described as a clip from a January Democratic primary debate in which he compared the southern border to a “front porch,” saying there should be “a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door.”
A similar line appears on Talarico’s campaign website, which says the border should be “like a front porch” with “a welcome mat out front and a lock on the door,” adding that the country can welcome refugees, asylum seekers and others who want to contribute while keeping out people who intend harm.
In another past clip cited by The Daily Wire, Talarico said people who commit violent crimes “should be deported immediately,” while arguing that law-enforcement resources should not focus on “hard-working members of our community.”
