Latin America & the USA: Texas Primaries; Record ICE suicides

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio in conversation with journalist Julia Tilton from The Daily Yonder, the US's only national news organization for rural people and places.  

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:02

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent, where we're going to pop our heads in today across the border with regular guest, Julia Tilton, who we keep up to speed with as regards the relations uh between the United States and Latin America. Hello, Julia.

Julia Tilton 0:17

Hi, John. How are you?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:19

I'm good, thank you. We're just gonna have a slightly shorter um exchange and conversation today because uh uh I know there's a couple of sort of pending stories that'd be good to pick up on, which are sort of uh time relevant, I think. First up, um the Texas Senate primaries. Now, I guess the question might be uh for some listeners, why are we looking at Texas when this is a podcast on Latin America? But of course, it is this uh this regular edition is uh cross-border uh relations, and of course, Mexico's longest border is shared with Texas, and what happens there is hugely consequential to Mexico, as we spoke about last time with you, Julia, when we talked about the border wall being erected around Big Bend. So, Julia, can you give us an update on what took place a few days ago as regards the Texas primaries?

Julia Tilton 1:08

Yeah, so Tuesday uh was election day in Texas. Um, and it was actually uh an election for a runoff for a highly competitive Senate primary. Um, and the results of this competitive primary have implications for the rest of the United States. Um on Tuesday, Ken Paxton, who is the current Texas attorney general, um, who was endorsed by President Trump, ousted a four-term senator named John Fournon, um, who's also a Republican. Remember, this is a primary. And so that makes Paxton the second primary challenger and MAGA-backed insurgent candidate. We've seen a wave of these MAGA insurgent candidates leading up to the November 2026 midterms. Um, Paxton is now the second such primary challenger to oust an incumbent Republican senator in less than two weeks. This comes after the upset in Louisiana um earlier uh in May. The New York Times is calling it a quote, raw display of President Trump's powerful hold on the party base, end quote. Essentially anything that Trump says goes. Um, and the voters certainly followed suit. There's a really compelling New York Times map that shows um, with arrows, uh, every Texas county and how voters uh made their decisions on Tuesday, uh, whether for Paxton or for Cornyn. And it's essentially all arrows pointing for Paxton. Um, and so I think that's a really powerful visual. I also thought that it was interesting uh to learn that the race uh was the most expensive primary in US history, and that Trump's pick, that's Ken Paxton, who ultimately won, um, was able to do so despite being outspent on advertising by the pro-Korny super PAX and um and organizations by roughly $80 million. So Paxton was outspent by roughly $80 million and still managed to win, um, likely because of that Trump endorsement. And so where we are now, um, we're looking toward the November midterms, as I mentioned, where Paxton, who has his fair share of scandals, which I'm not gonna go into because this is this is supposed to be a short conversation. Um, but Paxton will face off with Democratic nominee James Talarico, who we've talked about before. Um, he is the millennial pastor uh and current state legislature, current state legislator uh who has made waves in Texas and and honestly around the country in the Democratic Party for his rather progressive use of faith um in his campaigning.

Jon Bonfiglio 3:55

Yeah, called the left winger.

Julia Tilton 3:58

Yeah, exactly.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:00

Um I think it's it's also um important to note that um that despite this um us seeing um a continued sort of chokehold on the Republican Party by by Donald Trump, that that actually that's not necessarily good news for him in the midterms because the the sort of um the the winning of a more problematic and extremist Make America Great Again candidate is perceived to be likely to open up the the the middle ground for for James Calarico. And so it could actually potentially be a or rather the perception is actually this makes I mean it's still a long shot, but it makes a democratic victory in the midterms slightly more possible.

Julia Tilton 4:42

Yeah, I mean it is interesting. Um as part of the the coverage of this runoff and the ultimately the results of the runoff, uh there was some mention of how James Talarico, who of course has had, you know, the significant advantage having won the primary outright and not had, you know, having to have gone to a runoff, um, that he has been campaigning this whole time. Um and yet the the National Democratic Party has not identified the state of Texas as a priority in terms of its spending. Um there are a handful of other states, Maine. My state where I'm currently living is one of them that has been identified as a you know, quote unquote priority state in terms of democratic, you know, capital D, democratic um ad spending. And so certainly Tel Rico has an uphill battle. And it seems, at least at this point, that he doesn't have um that sort of financial backing from the Democratic Party in the way that other candidates, I look to Graham Plattner in Maine, for instance, who's running against Susan Collins, um, really do have, you know, this significant financial support. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. And I think your point that, you know, a more extreme candidate on the Republican side may just crack open, you know, a window or a door for Tel Rico to make some headway with more moderate voters.

Jon Bonfiglio 6:01

Yeah, and of course, the sort of Latino vote in Texas is going to be crucial as well. I mean, as we know, Trump did manage to sort of leverage a significant chunk of the Latino vote nationally across to the Republican Party and to his presidency, but it does seem as though he's lost a lot of that support now. So the question is going to be to what extent can uh Taller Rico energize that vote and then get them out? Because um, you know, Texas, what we know about Texas is, of course, that it is a um very conservative um state, sort of white uh Anglo-Saxon state, but it also has a really significant uh um migrant population, especially of sort of Latino heritage. So that's going to be an interesting question, which we'll keep up to date with um as well. And um, and I will be in Texas uh ahead of the uh of the midterms as well. So we'll we'll poll uh different populations at the time and see where things are going. And then Julia, um maybe we can also look at the really alarming rates of suicides uh which uh currently taking place in ICE custody.

Julia Tilton 7:08

Yeah, so also this week um there's uh a pretty riveting investigation by the Associated Press um that that looked into uh suicides among ICE detainees. That's immigration and customs enforcement. Um and the investigation by the AP essentially found that there's been a spike in the number of detainee suicides that are held in ICE custody uh since Trump took office in January 2025. So over the past 17 months or so, the AP found 10 instances of detainee suicide. All of them were men. Uh, and nine of the 10 deaths uh were of Hispanic men who had arrived in the United States from four different countries. The remaining uh detainee death was a Chinese citizen. And while Trump has characterized those who are held in ICE custody who are often facing deportation as the quote, worst of the worst, um, seven of the 10 had no record of violent crimes in the United States. Um since October, so just you know, a fraction of that overall time, seven deaths have been classified as suicides, uh, which is a number that is already the most for any fiscal year in the agency's history. ICE has usually recorded one or no deaths annually, no suicides annually. And so this spike, you know, up from zero to one to 10 in just the past, you know, year or so alone, has alarmed public health officials and jail experts who said that the unprecedented number of suicide deaths is an indication that authorities are failing to properly oversee the detention of the tens of thousands of immigrants who have been swept up in the Trump administration's aggressive deportation strategy. Um, I thought that this was an interesting part of the AP investigation, which is quite long, and so I don't have time to go into all of the details. Um, but in reaction to the news that that the AP broke, um, Colombian president Gustavo Petro wrote on Wednesday um that the country's foreign ministry should issue a formal protest regarding one of the suicides of Brian Rayo Garzon, who was one of the detainees, um, and that the US government should, quote, reflect on how its immigration policy is killing Americans and Latin Americans, end quote.

Jon Bonfiglio 9:32

Yeah, and of course, this just ahead of the first round of the Colombian elections, which are taking place on um on Sunday, this Sunday, 31st of May, which we've been covering and we will continue to cover, of course, on the on the podcast and on live broadcasts also. Uh Julia, as ever, thank you uh so much for your time. That's uh Julia Tilton from the Daily Yonder, of course, regular guest on the Latin America correspondent um page and um and recordings. Thanks, Julia.

Julia Tilton 9:57

Thanks, Ron.