Eagle Pass, Texas \u2014 EAGLE PASS, Texas \u2014 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and State Rep. James Talarico traveled through West Texas and along the border Monday, unveiling a border security agenda during what his campaign is calling the Frontera Tour.<\/p>\n
Yami Virgin was the only San Antonio television reporter invited to travel with Talarico and his campaign on Monday, joining national correspondents and other Texas media throughout the day.<\/p>\n
The tour began over the weekend in El Paso, then made stops in Alpine and Marfa. On Monday, the campaign traveled through Sanderson, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass as Talarico discussed border security, trade, and the relationship between Texas and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Talarico, a former West Side middle school teacher at Rhodes Middle School which closed this summer, and spent part of his childhood in Laredo, announced his border security agenda during the stop in Sanderson.<\/p>\n
He said he supports increased border security but believes the federal government should focus its resources on areas where physical barriers and additional enforcement are needed most.<\/p>\n
Talarico also criticized previous proposals to build a border wall through portions of the Big Bend region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a sacred place,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cOne of the sheriffs mentioned that this is a gift from God. And if you spend any time here in the region, you can see that up close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talarico said the region also holds personal meaning for him. He celebrates his birthday every year with his family camping in Big Bend National Park. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo see corrupt politicians in Washington spending billions of our tax dollars to build a useless wall through the least trafficked section of the whole border, it drives me crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think we all need to stand up against this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talarico said he is not opposed to physical barriers across every section of the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some parts of the border where a physical barrier makes sense,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense in this region. You have a God-created physical barrier with the mountain ranges and the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration previously proposed building additional border barriers through parts of the Big Bend region. Talarico said his plan would seek to protect border communities while preserving environmentally sensitive areas, including Big Bend National Park.<\/p>\n
The Frontera Tour continued Monday night with a rally in Eagle Pass. Talarico was expected to shift the conversation from border security to international trade and the economic relationship between Texas and Mexico.<\/p>\n
The campaign is scheduled to continue farther south with stops in Laredo, McAllen and Edinburg. The tour is also expected to address water infrastructure, health care, tariffs and the cost of living in Texas border communities.<\/p>\n
Talarico is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination after defeating Cornyn in the May runoff.<\/p>\n
FOX San Antonio has requested an interview with Paxton to discuss his campaign and border security platform. As of Monday evening, his campaign had not responded to the request.<\/p>\n
Watch Yami Virgin\u2019s one-on-one interview with James Talarico tomorrow night on FOX San Antonio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eagle Pass, Texas \u2014 EAGLE PASS, Texas \u2014 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and State Rep. James Talarico traveled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-372130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}