Editorial illustration
Some politicians never miss an opportunity to miss the point. Just one day after a deadly shooting in Austin left three people dead and a dozen wounded—allegedly carried out by a suspect wearing a hoodie emblazoned with “property of Allah” —Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico decided to focus on the real threat facing Americans: Trump’s travel restrictions on terror-prone countries.
Talarico, a state representative now running for U.S. Senate, has made ending what he and his allies falsely call the “Muslim ban” a centerpiece of his campaign, as stated on his official campaign website. The actual policy, reinstated by President Trump, restricts entry from nations identified by both the Obama and Trump administrations as having serious terrorism vulnerabilities and inadequate record-keeping: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Notice anything about that list? These aren’t exactly vacation destinations known for their robust border security and reliable passport systems. They’re countries where terrorist organizations operate with relative impunity, where governments barely function, and where verifying someone’s identity is about as reliable as a coin flip.
But Talarico sees something else entirely. He sees discrimination. He sees an opportunity to signal his progressive bona fides to the Democratic base, even if it means ignoring the very real security concerns that led both Republican and Democratic administrations to identify these nations as high-risk. The timing couldn’t be more revealing. When asked about the Austin attack, Talarico pivoted immediately to gun control—as reported in a statement from his office—saying, “There is something profoundly cynical in asking God to solve a problem we’re not willing to solve ourselves,” before calling for “commonsense gun safety proposals like universal background checks, red flag laws.”
Never mind that the alleged shooter wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place. Never mind that the question of who we let into this country—and from where—might actually be relevant when someone shows up at a bar with jihadist slogans on their clothing. For Talarico, the problem isn’t porous borders or insufficient vetting; it’s the guns, always the guns, and never the policies that let dangerous people slip through.
This isn’t new territory for Talarico. In 2017, he posted on Facebook about standing with “our Muslim neighbors” with the hashtag #NoBanNoWall . In 2021, he introduced legislation to add Imams to the list of officials who can perform marriage ceremonies in Texas, thanking Muslim activists from Emgage Action—a group that has lobbied to end the travel restrictions—as documented in Texas state legislative records.
There’s nothing wrong with building relationships with Muslim communities, of course. But there’s a difference between outreach and willful blindness. Talarico has demonstrated the latter time and again. He’s suggested that Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists are “more Christ-like than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas legislature,” as he wrote in a 2022 op-ed for the Texas Tribune.
One wonders what definition of “Christ-like” includes campaigning specifically to “piss off” a duly elected president, as Talarico boasted about doing in 2016 . One wonders what spiritual framework celebrates undermining national security in the name of political correctness.
The so-called “Muslim ban” has never actually been a Muslim ban, as Breitbart’s Joel Pollak has repeatedly documented in his articles. The restrictions apply to specific countries with specific security problems, not to Muslims generally. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, isn’t on the list. Neither are Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, or dozens of other Muslim-majority countries. The policy targets failed states and terrorist havens, not religious believers.
But facts have never stopped a good progressive narrative. And Talarico is running on that narrative, full speed ahead, even as the consequences of open-border policies play out in bloody headlines across the country. Texas voters will have to decide in 2026 whether they want a senator who prioritizes their safety or one who prioritizes his standing with activist groups. Based on Talarico’s record, that choice couldn’t be clearer.
And while the left pushes for policies that ignore real threats, it’s up to us to stand firm. But Talarico’s approach shows how far some will go to undermine common sense. Providence watches over the bold.
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