ICYMI: CNN Blasts Colin Allred for Waving off Border Crisis

HOUSTON — In case you missed it, CNN blasted Colin Allred for waving off the border crisis.

In February 2022, the southwest border had the highest number of illegal crossings for that month in 22 years. Despite this fact Colin Allred stated, “I think [immigration] may fall into, kind of, the right-wing echo chamber. I don’t hear a lot about the border here in Dallas … I don’t think it’s a top-of-mind issue.”

“On the issues that matter most to Texans, Colin Allred cannot be trusted to fight for them. It is clear that he will flip-flop at any given moment to appease his donors and his party. Unlike Allred, Senator Cruz is not afraid to stand up for his constituents and fight for them at all times.” –Cruz campaign spokesperson 

CNN
“Texas Democrat taking on Ted Cruz dismissed border as ‘right-wing echo chamber’ issue amid 2022 migrant crisis”

Democratic Rep. Colin Allred of Texas, who’s challenging GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the Republican-leaning state this fall, is promising to “fix the border” in a new ad, declaring that he “stood up to Joe Biden on the border.”

But just two years ago, the congressman dismissed the issue as one playing out in the “right-wing echo chamber,” despite a sharp increase of migrants at the US-Mexico border at the time.

Allred, a former NFL player and civil rights attorney who represents the northeast Dallas area, made his comments in February 2022 as the US was seeing a surge in migrants at the border compared with during the Trump administration – and even compared with the previous year under Biden, which smashed past records of encounters at the border.

Asked about Republicans running on the border – along with crime, inflation and “wokeism” in the 2022 midterms – Allred said he thought most voters were focused on inflation and the economy. “I think some of those others may fall into, kind of, the right-wing echo chamber,” Allred told CBS News’ Major Garrett on “The Takeout” podcast.

“I don’t hear a lot about the border here in Dallas, and I’m in a border state. Obviously, we want to have comprehensive immigration reform. We want to try and, you know, address some of these things,” Allred said.

“But it’s not – I don’t think it’s a top-of-mind issue,” he added, going on to say that he believed voters were still frustrated about Covid-19.

In February 2022, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 166,010 encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border, reflecting a significant increase from the 101,099 encounters in the same month the previous year – a rise of 64%.

That surge was part of a larger trend in 2022, which saw a then-record 2.4 million migrant encounters – a huge increase compared with during the Trump administration, which saw its highest annual total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2019 with 1.15 million. By comparison, fiscal year 2021, which covered part of Biden’s first year in office, saw 1.95 million total enforcement actions.

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A shift on the border
Allred – who was first elected to Congress in 2018 by flipping a GOP-held seat in the Dallas suburbs – has sought to toughen many of his stances on the border and immigration enforcement ahead of the statewide election in November.

He joined a Democratic-led border security task force this spring and said he supported the border security bill introduced earlier this year that was killed by Republicans.

That bill did not contain provisions for any undocumented immigrants, including a pathway to citizenship, which Allred has long pushed for, but he called it “a much-needed step” on immigration reform.

Allred has also shifted his rhetoric on a border wall popularized by Trump.

Read more here.