A sheriff in Texas is leaving the Democratic Party for the Republicans amid illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border from Mexico.
The Texas Republican Party announced on Wednesday that Dwayne Villanueva, sheriff of Karnes County, is leaving the Democrats. Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi congratulated Villanueva on his arrival.
“I am proud to welcome Sheriff Villanueva to the Republican Party. As Democrats increasingly abandon and cripple law enforcement, it is no wonder more people are turning to the Republican party,” Rinald said in a statement.
Villanueva won re-election in 2020 as a Democrat in a pro-Trump county, running on a law-and-order platform.
“I look forward to continuing the strong tradition of excellent law enforcement in Karnes County, which requires us to come together for a common cause and seek out leaders of integrity and merit,” he said in a statement.
The sheriff did not cite his reasons for leaving the party, but one can assume that it was the southern border crisis that pushed him to make his decision. Texas is on the frontlines of an unprecedented border crisis brought on by President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
The U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers since President Joe Biden announced in April that he would be lifting “Title 42,” a controversial border policy implemented by former President Donald Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the border agency to turn migrants away.
Since then, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported that nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border for the fiscal year ending in September, breaching the already-historic 1.7 million migrant detainees last year. The numbers are likely only to increase with the impending ending of “Title 42.”
The Biden administration’s border policy appears to have affected voting among members of the Hispanic population, a group of voters who normally support the Democratic Party in large numbers. Hispanic voters in the most recent midterm election appeared to change their political ideologies.
Two Hispanic judges in Texas joined the Republican Party earlier this year, each citing Biden’s border crisis as the reason.
“We have experienced an invasion that is something of every language,” said one of the judges. “We are trying to protect the sovereignty of Texas. I am a constitutional judge and we are standing behind the constitution.”
