Former San Antonio Republican Congressman Will Hurd has made clear his intentions to focus on unlawful migration at the border — the northern border.
Hurd recently announced his campaign to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024. During one of his first campaign stops in the crucial primary state of New Hampshire, Hurd highlighted unlawful migration that flows across the U.S.-Canada border in a tweet.
“I spent the morning at our northern border. With a crisis unfolding to our south, our northern border isn’t getting the attention it deserves. We need to do more to protect our northern states like New Hampshire against the dangers it presents.”
Hurd’s attention to the northern border is not without merit. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, just over 115,000 unlawful migrant encounters on the U.S.-Canada border have been recorded in 2023. Over 1.6 million unlawful migrant encounters were recorded along the southern border.
Hurd’s commitment to border security is an apparent departure from his previous stance. During his time in Congress, Hurd repeatedly denounced former President Donald Trump’s effort to construct a border wall and advocated mass amnesty for unlawful migrants residing in the U.S.
Hurd’s campaign for president focuses on former President Trump as a rival, with his campaign launch video attacking the GOP front-runner as a “proven loser.”
Hurd previously represented the 23rd Congressional District from 2015 to 2021. After narrowly winning re-election in 2018 by half a point, Hurd retired before facing re-election in 2022.
At the time, Hurd’s retirement coincided with disagreements with former President Trump over the handling of the Southern border crisis and several other issues.
Despite Hurd’s retirement being seen as a bad omen for the GOP, Trump-endorsed Republican Tony Gonzales won the district by four points in 2020. Former President Trump also won the district by two points.
Will Hurd’s popularity in Texas will be tested in the 2024 Texas Republican Presidential Primary scheduled for March 5, 2024.