Donald Trump rallies Texas GOP activists, officials on immigration

AUSTIN – Former President Donald Trump took advantage of a mid-early-voting stop in Texas on Friday to hammer home his campaign’s message on border security, saying his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris has “innocent blood on her hands” for crimes committed by unauthorized migrants and reinforcing his commitment to mass deportation.
“Immediately after taking the oath of office, I will launch the largest mass deportation program in American history,” Trump said to a roaring crowd of about 100 supporters at the invitation-only rally at a private jet hangar in East Austin. “I will arrest every migrant operating on American soil.” The plan could cost billions, USA TODAY has reported.
Flanked by Border Patrol agents and standing between signs reading “DEPORT ILLEGALS NOW” and “END MIGRANT CRIME,” Trump introduced Alexis Nungaray, whose daughter, Jocelyn, was found dead in a bayou in Houston in June. Two undocumented Venezuelan citizens have been charged with capital murder and sexual assault in her case.
“Kamala Harris has never reached out to me, she’s never offered her condolences,” Nungaray said, saying the “open border” policies of the Biden administration caused her daughter’s death. While unauthorized migrant crossings occurred during both the Trump and Biden administrations, the Homeland Security Department has adhered to a policy of “catch-and-release” under Biden, allowing migrants to wait for asylum hearings in the country instead of keeping them in detention.
Nungaray was among several speakers who criticized Harris over immigration policies and making few visits to border regions.
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More:Election 2024 live updates: Eyes on Texas as Trump pit stops in Austin; Harris in Houston
About 160 miles east, Texans were gathering Friday afternoon outside the Shell Energy Stadium in Houston for a star-studded rally hosted by Harris on her presidential campaign’s marquee issue of reproductive rights.
The event was set to feature U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a Democratic congressman from Dallas who is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and was to include performances by Beyoncé, Willie Nelson and DJ Tryfe.
Cruz, who joined Trump at his Austin rally Friday afternoon, ridiculed Allred for his appearance with Harris.
“If you like Kamala Harris’ open borders, if you like Kamala Harris’ inflation, if you like Kamala Harris’ letting criminals out of jail and the crime that comes with it, then Colin Allred is your man, because Colin Allred is Kamala Harris,” Cruz said in response to a question from reporters.
During his roughly 40-minute speech, Trump touted his endorsement from the National Border Patrol Council, which is the union for Border Patrol agents. He also repeated unsubstantiated claims that other countries’ mental institutions and jails are being “emptied out” by immigration to the U.S.
“It’s like a garbage can for most of the world; they dump the people they don’t want,” Trump said. “If we don’t win this year, we’re going to go to Venezuela, Ted, and we’re going to celebrate there, because it’s going to be much safer than our country.”
Studies have historically shown that migrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens. However, those who support Trump’s goal to deport all unauthorized migrants have said one crime is too many.
Trump did not mention his plan to stop federal agencies from granting automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented parents, as per his agenda, in contravention of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Harris has criticized Trump for telling congressional Republicans to tank a bipartisan border bill, which ultimately failed after the former president said it would deliver President Joe Biden’s administration a policy win. The bill would have given presidents more authority to reject migrants during periods of high traffic, tightened restrictions on asylum and allocated more resources for Customs and Border Patrol agents and inspection checkpoints.
Many Republicans, including Cruz, said they felt the bill was too lenient and that the Biden administration should have found a way to close the border without congressional action.
Trump gave shoutouts to several Texas GOP officials and Republican activists who attended the event, including his allies Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, as well as Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Texas Republican Party Chair Abraham George.
“When you go after people with bull—-, they become very popular,” Trump said of Paxton’s impeachment.
Among the less expected guests were the family of Vanessa Guillen, a soldier slain in 2020 at Fort Cavazos (then Fort Hood). Guillen’s sister criticized a report from the Atlantic this week that alleged Trump said, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—— Mexican!” and refused to pay for a funeral he promised to front the bill for.
Many rally attendees wore their support in markers ranging from subtle to ostentatious. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham wore a blue dress and heels patterned with glittering American flags; another attendee wore white sneakers with “45” embossed in gold. Red “Make America Great Again” hats from 2016 to 2024 were in abundance among the crowd.
Several of those rallying are active in Republican Party chapters in and around Austin, and several told the American-Statesman about their hope that Trump will fix political divides.
Abhiram Garapati, a rancher from Cedar Park who is planning a future run for Congress, brought a felt cowboy hat stamped with “Donald J. Trump” to present to the former president at the rally.
An immigrant from India who said he “came here with nothing 25 years back,” Garapati said he wholeheartedly supports Trump.
“There is absolutely no vision with the current politicians,” he said. “Nobody is saying, ‘Let’s take send a man to the moon.’ We lost that kind of a politician who has a vision for the country, who wants to unite the country and set some high goals for the country. That’s why I’m here.” Garapati also mentioned his concerns about inflation, crime and immigration as reasons he is voting for the former president.
The rancher struck a different tone about Cruz.
“I don’t know why he has so much people against him. He needs to work on that as a politician,” he said. One issue Cruz should compromise on, in his view, is abortion rights.
“I hope (both sides) can agree to some mutual compromise so that the country can move on and not fight about it anymore,” he said.
Also fresh in the minds of attendees was the Butler, Pa., rally where Trump was nearly assassinated. Some rallygoers wore shirts showing the former president, fist raised after a bullet pierced his earlobe.
Austin Young Republicans member Benjamin Shrader, who was sitting in front of Trump at the rally, recounted hearing a bullet strike Corey Comperatore about 10 feet behind him.
“I’m glad he’s alive,” he said of Trump. “I abhor violence. I think that violence on any side is terrible for the country; it’s very dangerous.”
After the rally, Trump’s motorcade headed west to record an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in Rogan’s Austin studio. Trump’s campaign likely bet that his appearance on the show, which is hugely popular among conservative-leaning American men, could drive voter turnout, Agriculture Commissioner Miller said to reporters.
The trip to a non-battleground state for the recording is a marker of the shift in the media landscape, one of Trump’s comments highlighted.
“Fake news people, we’ve got a lot of them,” he said of reporters after calling Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg a “sleazebag.” “These are evil people, they’re a threat to democracy.”
Meanwhile in Houston, hours before Harris’ rally start time, the line to see the Democratic nominee snaked thousands deep around Shell Energy Stadium, home to the Houston Dynamo FC, the city’s Major League Soccer team.
Sitting in the shade of a stand of crape myrtles along the arena’s west wall were cousins Jacqueline Sevier and Tracey Mason-Moore.
As Black women who came of age in the 1980s, Mason-Moore and Sevier didn’t even dream they would have the opportunity to vote for a woman of color in a presidential election. They are now in their 60s.
“This is going to go down in the history books,” Mason-Moore said.
Both said abortion rights topped their priorities in the election.
“What about someone who is molested or raped?” Mason-Moore said of Texas’ near-total abortion ban. 
Sevier, cutting in, said, “Especially if it’s life or death.”
Asked if the expected performance by pop superstar Beyoncé factored into their decision to wait in what had quickly become a very long line.
“I’m here for Harris, and that’s all,” Sevier said. “I’m too old to care about Beyoncé.”
In Houston on Friday, Harris criticized Trump’s statement calling the United States the world’s “garbage can,” accusing the former president of disparaging the American people. 
“This is someone who is a former president of the United States, who has a bully pulpit,” Harris told reporters before the rally. “And this is how he uses it? To tell the world that somehow the United States of America is trash?”
Statesman staff writer John Moritz and USA TODAY staff writer Joey Garrison contributed reporting.