Gonzales, once a skeptic of the Republican Party’s hardline immigration line, is becoming a champion

When Speaker Mike Johnson and dozens of House Republicans gathered in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday to call for a crackdown on migrants at the border, they had a somewhat unlikely host.

It was just a few months ago that Representative Tony Gonzales, the Texas Republican who represents the busy border crossing and the surrounding predominantly Hispanic district, broke with his party in opposition to the crackdown on immigration. At the time, he warned his colleagues against an overly draconian approach and urged them not to politicize the issue.

Now Mr. Gonzales, who has faced resistance and several primary opponents in his competitive district, has joined the zeal of a convert, becoming one of the leading advocates of the Republicans’ tough border enforcement law and an advocate of attempts to use this law. as political leverage against President Biden.

He has endorsed calls to make improvements to border security a condition for securing military aid to Ukraine and keeping the federal government open. And he has worked closely with Mr. Johnson to pressure the rest of Congress to embrace the Republican Party’s hard line.

It is not surprising that Mr. Gonzales, a second-term congressman in a swing district, would take an active role in debates over immigration policy. His congressional district, Texas’ 23rd, includes the longest stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and includes the entire Del Rio sector along the Rio Grande, which consistently ranks among the busiest for border patrol encounters with migrants trying to enter illegally.

In his few years as president, Mr. Gonzales has hosted several delegations of lawmakers for fact-finding trips along his portion of the border, including two speakers and several senators who are now pushing to forge a bipartisan deal to tighten migrant crossings to grab. Republicans have demanded such measures in exchange for backing a bill to expedite new military aid to Ukraine for its war against Russian aggression.

But Mr. Gonzales’s rapid shift from skeptic to supporter of Republicans’ tough immigration bill in the House of Representatives illustrates the political potency of the issue within the Republican Party, and how little room there is for dissent on an issue that has strengthened the party’s far-right base. .

“We are united in ensuring that the top priority of Republicans in the House of Representatives is securing this border,” Gonzales told reporters Wednesday at a news conference in Eagle Pass, as he and more than 60 of his Republican colleagues stood on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Mr. Gonzales has said that he and Mr. Johnson meet weekly to discuss the state of the border and negotiations in the Senate to reach a bipartisan border security deal. Mr. Johnson has repeatedly warned Mr. Biden and Democrats that he will tolerate nothing less than the severely restrictive bill the House passed last spring.

But unlike Mr. Johnson and some of his far-right colleagues, Mr. Gonzales has hinted at an openness to compromise.

“Now is the time to make sure America is safe, and we’ll do that by making a down payment on border security in ’24,” he told reporters Wednesday, adding that Republicans “could come back for the rest if we regain power.” White House in ’25.”

Mr. Gonzales declined to be interviewed through a spokeswoman Wednesday. But he said this week that if senators could strike a bipartisan border deal that could attract the supermajority needed to move forward in the Senate, it would be difficult for Republicans in the House of Representatives to reject it outright , even if it did not meet their demands.

“If the Senate can reach 60 in a meaningful way, that would be a powerful message that the House of Representatives cannot simply set aside,” Gonzales told CNN on Tuesday. “But to be very clear: there must be meaningful border solutions. It shouldn’t just be window dressing.”

A year ago, Mr. Gonzales was unapologetically critical of legislation authored by Representative Chip Roy, also a Texas Republican, to hold asylum seekers in detention centers while their cases were pending in immigration court and to expand the government’s ability to to deport migrants as soon as detention beds ran out. full.

Mr. Gonzales criticism of the bill as “anti-American” and “not Christian,” prompting censure from the Republican Party of Texas, which also reprimanded him for supporting gun safety measures and defending same-sex marriage. Still, Mr. Gonzales continued to object, threatening to unite Hispanic Republicans against the measure and ultimately forcing Republican Party leaders in the House of Representatives — who needed their votes to pass the bill through the narrowly divided chamber — to roll back the restrictions.

In the months since, Gonzales has drawn three Republican primary challengers, all to his right.

The House of Representatives bill still placed severe restrictions on asylum, narrowing the categories of migrants eligible to make claims, requiring migrants to be held in Mexico pending their court hearings, and reducing the power of the government expanded to quickly remove migrants before they could argue to stay. These proposals have emerged as sticking points in negotiations in the Senate, which have also included discussions about restricting access to the country when detention centers reach capacity.

In recent months, Mr. Gonzales has also moved to the right on other border-related issues. He has worked with Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican, to advance a resolution to oust Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for implementing policies that the Republican Party blames for driving of unlawful migrant crossings and fentanyl deaths in the US. United States.

Although the resolution has not passed the House of Representatives, the Homeland Security Committee is expected to begin hearings on Mr. Mayorkas’ impeachment next week.

In recent days, Mr. Gonzales has also endorsed calls from the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus to make substantive changes in border security a condition of federal government funding.

“Unless there are meaningful border solutions in there,” he said on “Fox News Sunday,” “you can take me as a no.”