Democratic Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico said the southern border should have “a giant welcome mat out front.”

A new ad by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed his Democratic opponent in the U.S. Senate race, James Talarico, said the U.S. southern border should be wide open. 

The ad, which Paxton posted on X a day after he won the Republican Senate primary, included a narrator describing some things as “this is Texas” and others as “this is not,” and juxtaposing scenes of people and places with Talarico quotes.

In the ad, Talarico is shown saying, “Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front.” (Text on the ad said: “‘A welcome mat,’ not a border wall.”)

Talarico did say this, but the ad left out what he said next.

His full remarks during the Jan. 24 Texas Senate Democratic primary debate, were: 

“So what I’ve said is that our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front, and a lock on the door. 

“We can welcome immigrants who want to live the American dream. We can build a pathway to citizenship for those neighbors who have been here, making us richer and stronger, and we can keep out people who mean to do us harm.”

Talarico has said variations of this in other interviews, and the quote has been shared out of context multiple times in the past, including in political groups’ and politicians’ social media posts and at least one other pro-Paxton ad.

We contacted Paxton’s campaign but received no response.

Our ruling

A Paxton ad says Talarico said the southern border should have “a giant welcome mat out front.”

Talarico compared the southern border with a front porch with a welcome mat. But the ad omitted Talarico’s comments that followed, when he said there should be “a lock on the door” and “we can keep out people who mean to do us harm.”

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False. 

PolitiFact Senior Digital Research Analyst Jeff Cercone contributed to this report.