Don Huffines Uses the Texas Gubernatorial Primary to Push for Strong Immigration Restriction Policies

Since Don Huffines entered the race to challenge incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, Texas politics has taken an intriguing turn.

Huffines has positioned himself as a border hawk who has criticized Abbott for not doing enough to address the current crisis at the border. In fact, there is speculation that Abbott’s recent gestures towards building a wall was perhaps the result of Huffines’ pressure.

Huffines, who previously served as State Senator from 2014 to 2018, has not relented in his calls for border security. 

On July 17 the former Texas State Senator, tweeted, “The Texas Border is not secure. When I am Governor it will be because I will:

– Finish the wall

– Put economic pressure on Mexico to forge them to be a good neighbor

– Deploy the full Texas National Guard to the border

– Implement E-Verify for all businesses”

https://twitter.com/DonHuffines/status/1416512530315370504 

The approach that Huffines is taking is rather interesting because it makes the assumption that the states should be more proactive in pursuing measures that secure the US border as opposed to the federal government.

At the moment, DC is treating border security like an afterthought. This perhaps a sign that real change will have to come from below, as the federal government has a completely distinct agenda from red states who have legitimate concerns about the effects of mass migration. 

Ideally, we would have a federal government that’s not obsessed with military conflicts abroad and is instead re-allocating military resources to defending our southern border, which is quite vulnerable thanks to the large activity of drug traffickers, human traffickers, and other criminal actors that seek to do harm to Americans.

However, we don’t live in ideal circumstances and states will have to muddle through by crafting their own unique solutions to the many problems America faces. A state like Texas creating its own border patrol and immigration task force could dramatically change the way immigration is handled in the states.