By Mike Hough
According to recent polling, Texas’ U.S. Senate race between Congressman Colin Allred and Senator Ted Cruz is neck and neck. Both candidates are airing millions of dollars in TV ads, seeking to convince voters that they’re tough on the border.
While the two candidates may sound similar on TV, they couldn’t be more different in what they have repeatedly said and, more importantly, how they each have voted in Congress.
Consider one of Allred’s latest ads, “Focused on border solutions,” which features approving images of the wall. It’s smart politics. Yet it doesn’t reflect the congressman’s true record.
At a 2018 Big East Forum event, Allred dismissed the need for more fencing, boasting that “If they build that wall, my generation will be the one that tears it down… we will not have this wall in our country.” In Congress, Allred voted to prevent any federal reimbursements for Texas’ Operation Lone Star initiative, which aims to build its own wall due to the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border.
Allred also voted against the Secure the Border Act, the strongest-ever border security bill to pass either chamber of Congress. The House of Representatives approved it in May 2023, and it would have completed the border wall, created new penalties for human traffickers and drug smugglers, ended catch-and-release, and reformed the broken parole and asylum systems that have enabled illegal aliens to flood into our communities.
Senator Cruz, by contrast, was the lead sponsor of the Senate’s version of the Secure the Border Act. His bill would require all businesses to use E-Verify, a free federal portal that cross-references workers’ self-reported information with Social Security Administration databases to confirm newly hired employees are in the country legally. By cutting off the “jobs magnet” that attracts most illegal immigrants, mandated E-Verify alone would largely end the border crisis.
Nonetheless, it is Allred who accuses Cruz of failing to address the border crisis — all because the senator refused to support a deeply flawed proposal that did not have enough support in the Democrat-controlled Senate even to come to a vote.
If passed, the Senate bill in question would have normalized the release of a minimum of 1,400 illegal aliens into the country every day. Under the policy, “catch and release” would be codified, and mandatory detention would be rendered ineffectual. It would have also allowed liberal asylum officers to grant illegal immigrants asylum without needing approval from a judge, and would have instantly given work permits to anyone claiming asylum. That would mean more foreign workers crossing the border and fraudulently claiming asylum to compete for American jobs.
Simply put, the “border security” bill passed in the House and proposed in the Senate by Cruz would have ended the border crisis. The Senate bill that Allred advocates would increase both illegal and legal immigration.
My organization, NumbersUSA, does not endorse candidates. Rather, for decades, we’ve meticulously cataloged every vote that members of Congress take and the bills they sponsor. We then assign them a “grade card” that shows voters what their Senators and House members are actually doing to increase or reduce immigration.
Rep. Allred has a career “F-” grade. That’s not just lower than every single Republican in Congress, it’s lower than 65% of his fellow Democrats. Senator Cruz, meanwhile, boasts a career A grade and an A+ in this session of Congress. He’s one of only a handful of lawmakers who’ve earned our “true reformer” designation.
Colin Allred has routinely voted against measures to end illegal immigration, while endorsing legislation that would exacerbate the crisis. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, has spearheaded nearly every effort to secure the border and protect American workers.
Voters deserve to know the truth.
Mike Hough is the Director of Federal Government Relations for NumbersUSA. NumbersUSA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that believes better immigration policy is possible and needed.
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