Steve Bannon urges Donald Trump to send troops to Texas to prevent state from becoming a haven for undocumented immigrants: ‘This is an emergency’
Former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon is urging the president to send troops to Texas so that immigrants don’t flock there after the 2026 midterm elections.
The right-wing political commentator expressed panic that Texas’ election of Democratic governor Gina Hinojosa and other Democrats in statewide elections would turn the Lone Star State into a “haven for undocumented immigrants,” and that the only solution would be a military deployment.
Republicans Freak Out About a Blue Texas
“This is an emergency. This has to happen now,” Bannon whined in a new interview.
The 72-year-old worried that widespread immigration in Texas would cause “permanent damage” to the country. Bannon made a similar claim to Axios, urging the deployment of federal troops to the border.
His comments come alongside a quote from Aaron Reitz, a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor in Houston, claiming Democrats would turn Texas’ cities into a “Minnesota-style insane asylum.”
Minnesota was turned into an “insane asylum” largely by Operation Metro Surge, a violent immigration enforcement campaign that found immigration agents shooting, killing, and assaulting people in the streets. The immigration operations were widely despised and protested by local Minnesotans.
Texas Turned Blue Thanks to Latino Voters
Democrats’ rousing success in Texas in the midterms was partially fueled by backlash to the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.
Analysts have argued that a major leftward shift by the state’s Latino population was a key factor in why Democrats were able to make such massive gains in the state. Notably, districts on the Mexican border that largely went toward Trump in the 2024 presidential election almost entirely swung to Democratic Senator-elect James Talarico in the midterms.
Bannon Worries Democrats Want to ‘Seize’ the ‘Crown Jewel’ of America
Bannon and Republicans argue that Trump needs to deploy the military to prevent the state’s newly-elected Democratic government from ceasing Texas’ cooperation with the federal government on immigration.
Bannon complained that Democrats were attempting to seize “the jewel in the crown of the union” and turn it into a “sanctuary state.”
“You’re never going to get the country back,” he warned.
A Showdown Between Texas and the White House May Be Coming
Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, has already responded to the election by ordering police officers to stop calling ICE over non-violent offenses.
The order is expected to prompt a response from the White House, where anti-immigration hardliner Stephen Miller has just been promoted to Chief of Staff.
Miller has previously argued that the president should have the privilege to deploy the National Guard anywhere anytime he wants. The conservative Supreme Court disagreed on that notion in a 6-3 decision that prevented the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Chicago.
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