At a rally one week before the election, the president attacked the Democratic candidate over immigration. Official border figures do not support Trump's claim of 25 million.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday, October 27, at a rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, that Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico would immediately open the border if he takes office. It was one of two stops that day in the state, one week before the November 3 election.
What Trump said
According to reports of the speech, which could not be checked against an official transcript, Trump said that with Talarico in the Senate, the floodgates would open to millions of people who would enter Texas, as Trump believes happened two years earlier. Trump used a mocking nickname for the candidate and called the candidate a communist. The description of migrants as violent criminals is Trump's own claim and has not been confirmed by official data.
According to those same reports, the president also repeatedly said that 25 million people entered the country during the previous administration. That figure does not appear in the official statistics reviewed for this article. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) publishes monthly Border Patrol apprehensions on the southwest border and, for fiscal year 2026, reports, for example, 6,076 in January 2026 and 10,011 in May 2026, in its statistics page. In August 2026 there were 8,870; September had not yet been published, and the figures may be revised.
Context: a close race
Trump traveled to Texas to boost Republican Ken Paxton. It is his fourth trip to the state in this campaign, according to press reports. Talarico, a state lawmaker, held a separate campaign event in Lubbock the same night. Reports describe the race as very tight and place the Corpus Christi visit within the Republican effort to keep Latino support in South Texas.
The border and immigration are a central theme of Trump's message in this state, where millions of Latinos live. This article does not include a confirmed response from Talarico to these remarks.
What's next?
The Texas Secretary of State indicates in its election calendar that the last day of in-person early voting is Friday, October 30, 2026, and that Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to visit Weatherford on Thursday, according to press reports.
What does it mean to you?
- Remarks at a rally are political statements, not laws or rule changes: a Senate candidate alone does not change immigration rules.
- If you live in Texas and are eligible to vote, in-person early voting ends October 30; November 3 is Election Day.
- For border data, check the statistics published by CBP, not figures repeated in speeches.
Editor's note: Some information in this article could not be confirmed with official sources at the time of publication; it comes from reports by other media outlets or from the individuals quoted. We will update the article if the information changes.
