Democrats in Texas Senate race call for ICE overhaul, hours after Minnesota shooting

Hours after federal immigration agents killed a man in Minneapolis, the top Democrats running for U.S. Senate in Texas appeared on a debate stage together and both called for overhauling Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Just minutes into the debate between Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico, which was hosted by the Texas AFL-CIO and moderated by Nexstar’s KXAN-TV and The Dallas Morning News, Crockett referenced the shooting by Department of Homeland Security agents. She pointed to the incident to lay out the stakes of the race ahead of the March 3 primary.

“Listen, we are not looking at politics as usual. Just today, we just had another person gunned down in the streets in Minneapolis,” Crockett said. “And so for anyone that believes that we are going to be able to respond to this in a normal way, I think that they’ve got it wrong.”

Crockett and Talarico also agreed on a range of liberal positions as they fight to flip a Republican-leaning state, including saying that President Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses and that changing the makeup of the Supreme Court should be considered.

Crockett defended her recent vote against a DHS funding bill, saying, “There was no way I was going to continue to pump a historic amount of money into this rogue organization that is going out and is violating people’s rights every single day in American cities.”

“We absolutely have to clean house, whatever that looks like,” Crockett, who supports impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, later said when pressed on whether she would support defunding or abolishing ICE altogether.

Talarico, who also backed impeaching Noem, said it is time to “tear down” the agency.

“ICE shot a mother in the face. ICE kidnapped a 5-year-old boy. ICE executed a man in broad daylight on our streets just this morning,” Talarico said. “It’s time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety.”

Both candidates were also pressed on how they balance their views of ICE when Texas voters may support deporting undocumented immigrants, a nod to the politics of a state that Trump won by 14 points in 2024.

“They are supposed to do Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not going after U.S. citizens, not going after people that are documented. That is not what they are supposed to do, but that is what they are doing,” Crockett said. “They are turning us into Nazi Germany by saying they’re gonna go door to door. They are going after people because of their accent or the color of their skin because this Supreme Court gave them carte blanche ability to do so.”

Talarico pointed to his family’s roots in a Texas border town, calling for balancing border security with an immigration overhaul.

“Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door,” Talarico said. “We can welcome immigrants who want to live the American dream. We can build a pathway to citizenship for those neighbors who have been here, making us richer and stronger, and we can keep out people who mean to do us harm.”

Both candidates referred to immigration enforcement and the clashes in Minnesota, where protests have continued after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis earlier this month, in stark terms later in the debate.

Crockett accused Trump of “seemingly trying to plunge us not only into a civil war with ICE, but he’s also trying to plunge us into World War III,” referring to his foreign policy.

Talarico referred back to ongoing clashes in Minnesota during a discussion about potential military action in Iran, saying, “We can have discussions about how to respond in Iran, where we have seen so many innocent civilians, protesters murdered on their streets. We’re also seeing that in Minnesota as we speak.”

Both candidates sharply criticized the Trump administration as they compete to take on Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the traditionally red state, though Talarico suggested multiple times that state Attorney General Ken Paxton could be the GOP nominee. Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term, is facing a tough primary fight against Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Crockett reiterated her support for impeaching Trump, saying, “There is more than enough to impeach Donald Trump. Period.” She pointed to his tariff policy as one potential impeachable offense.

Talarico also said that “the administration has certainly committed impeachable offenses, particularly when it comes to using their public roles to enrich themselves,” but added that he would carefully examine all of the evidence and “vote my conscience,” as the Senate acts as the jury in an impeachment trial.

The debate revealed few policy differences between the candidates, but a handful of dividing lines emerged on their political strategy and their stances on issues like the Senate filibuster, corporate donations and Supreme Court reforms.

Crockett argued she is the more electable candidate in November, touting support among working-class, Black and female voters and suggesting she will more forcefully take on Trump.

“This is about whether or not we have the will,” Crockett said. “And right now, people are not happy with the Democratic Party. I’ve seen the polling. What they want is someone who is going to be unafraid in the face of what we are facing right now, which is someone who believes he’s a king.”

She took a rare swipe at Talarico, saying he is not as well known in the state despite his time in elected office.

“He’s not as known right now because I have engaged in these fights, and they have been right there on the front lines where people could see me out front,” Crockett said.

Talarico framed his campaign as a fight against billionaires, saying “the real fight in this country is not left versus right, it’s top versus bottom.”

“We have traveled to every corner of Texas because we’re not writing off any voter or any community, and we have shattered grassroots fundraising records without taking a dime of corporate PAC money,” Talarico later added.

Talarico called for banning corporate PACs and super PACs, and he defended past campaign donations to his state legislative campaign committee from a pro-gambling PAC funded by GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson. Talarico said he has never met Adelson and they are not aligned on most issues, but the donation was tied to his support for legalizing gambling in Texas.

Crockett also defended donations to her campaigns from a slew of corporate PACs, saying those donations are limited under federal law and that they come from employee contributions to the PACs. She also said she has used her own campaign funds to boost other Democratic candidates.

The candidates also appeared to take different stances on the 60-vote threshold to end debate in the Senate, known as the filibuster. Talarico has previously said he supports eliminating the filibuster, while Crockett suggested carveouts for certain issues like voting rights could be more feasible.

“There are not a lot of people on the Senate side that are going to say, ‘Hey, yes, let’s do it,’” Crockett said of eliminating the filibuster. “But I do think that we can get somewhere if we focus on looking at, historically, the fact that they have had these carveouts. And we need to make it for, at a very minimum, our fundamental issues.”

Crockett also voiced her support for expanding the Supreme Court, while Talarico said he would be “open” to the move. Talarico added that term limits for justices “can do just as much good” to reduce partisanship on the high court.

As they laid out their stances on a range of other issues including lowering costs, supporting unions and navigating artificial intelligence, Crockett and Talarico both talked about the high stakes of the U.S. Senate race in Texas.

“I have seen the consequences in the trenches of the Texas Legislature of losing elections. I’ve seen my constituents get hurt. I’ve seen rights that we took for granted rolled back. I’ve seen schools close. I’ve seen people not be able to access basic health care. So we have to win in November,” Talarico said.

Crockett said she has “been fighting on the front lines in this corrupt administration,” and she has faced death threats in the process.

“Whoever goes to the United States Senate is going to have to be ready for real war. This is how bad it is,” Crockett said, later adding: “I am here to tell you that it is life or death, as we see what is happening in Minnesota and otherwise.”