Rep Henry Cuellar calls out Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico over ‘welcome mat’ at border remarks

Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar said Saturday on Fox News he hopes James Talarico, his state party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, changes his stated view that the southern border should have a “giant welcome mat” for migrants.

“Saturday in America” host Kayleigh McEnany asked the congressman if he agreed with Talarico’s border remarks, which he made during a Democratic primary debate with Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Cuellar replied, “No, of course I don’t.”

“I hope I spend some time with him [Talarico] and get him to change the situation at the border. And I live at the border, I just don’t go visit the border,” Cuellar told McEnany. “We want to see law and order at the border. We need to make sure that we control our borders, but still be respectful of legal immigration.”

“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 during his Jan. 24 debate against Crockett, whom he defeated by six percentage points in Tuesday’s primary.

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Cuellar is a moderate Democrat representing a 75% Hispanic district bordering Mexico, which President Donald Trump carried in the 2024 presidential election. He is known for frequently breaking with his party on immigration enforcement.

“My parents were born in Mexico. My father became a legal resident and a naturalized citizen. He did it the right way, like a lot of Americans did,” the congressman continued. “But we cannot have open borders. We’ve seen that under the Biden administration. It was a mistake, and it will be a mistake to have open borders.”

“We also can’t have a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is not funded when the threat level starts to rise,” McEnany said, referring to a Sunday shooting at an Austin bar. The suspect was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal who wore a shirt with the colors of the Iranian flag and a sweatshirt bearing the words “Property of Allah.”

“And there was a vote to fund DHS this week … to fund organizations like Coast Guard, CISA — really important to our safety — Secret Service, and you were one of four yet again. Four people,” McEnany said, referring to a Thursday House vote to end the partial government shutdown. Cuellar and fellow moderate Democratic Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Jared Golden of Maine, and Don Davis of North Carolina — who also all represent seats Trump won in 2024 — were the only lawmakers to buck their party and fund the DHS.

“What is it going to take to get your colleagues on board because we need DHS right now?” the Fox News host asked Cuellar.

“Bottom line is there has to be some oversight or rail guards on ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], but nevertheless, we got to look at the big picture, and we cannot have the Department of Homeland [Security] not be funded at this time,” he answered.

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