FOX 26 calls 'B.S.' on extreme, inaccurate GOP border claims
No B.S.: Political ads looking to exploit anxiety over order policy with unfounded claims
It’s hard to find a Texas voter who is unconcerned about what’s happening on the border and at least two well-known Republicans are clearly looking to exploit that anxiety with claims that don’t stand up to scrutiny.
Deep and justified concern among Texas voters over the porous border and the ongoing wave of uninvited immigration has sparked a barrage of Republican allegations embedded in political attack ad's currently wall-papering the Lone Star State air-waves.
"Now Rochelle Garza is running for Attorney General to completely open our border," says the narrator in an ad funded by incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton.
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According to Rice political analyst Mark Jones, Paxton's claim is both misleading and based on a completely false premise.
"There's no way that Rochelle Garza if elected Attorney General could open the borders because that is not a power the Texas Attorney General has," said Jones. "It's not really a power that the Texas Governor has. It's only a power that the federal government has."
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Garza's campaign has emphatically denied the allegation and Dr. Jones says Garza has said nothing on the record to justify Paxton's claim.
"The intent here is to inflame and to tie Rochelle Garza to an extreme liberal approach to immigration which very few Democrats, including the Biden administration, support," said Jones.
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The polls say Rochelle Garza is closer than any other democrat to actually winning a state-wide race. FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan caught up with Garza, who is facing off against incumbent Ken Paxton in the race for Texas Attorney General.
The same turn-out energizing tactic can be found in an attack ad being run by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
"Collier is against building the border wall, and he supports open borders," says the narrator of the Patrick spot.
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Decrying the Patrick ad as riddled with falsehoods, the Collier campaign sent out a letter to major Texas television stations asking them to pull the spot.
Jones says the "open borders" allegation is clearly a bid to energize election-day participation by the Republican Party base.
"The goal of this ad, first and foremost, is to mobilize Republicans to turn out to vote," he said. "We know that immigration and border security is one of the top priorities of Republican voters and this ad gets them to go out to vote."
And so, because neither Garza nor Collier advocate "open borders" and wouldn't have the authority to change immigration policy if elected, FOX 26 is labeling these claims "mostly B.S."