This Hot Take From Karl Rove About Illegal Immigration Needs to Be Booted to the Curb

We've been reporting on some of the tumult coming from some Republicans in Texas over the choice of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). 

Instead of getting on board with Paxton in a critical fight for Republicans to hold the Senate, put in someone who has been an effective AG, and block out radical extremist Democrat James Talarico, Cornyn has been throwing a tantrum, even posting favorably about former Bush operative Karl Rove, who said he was going to vote for a Democrat for the Texas Railroad Commission. 

Cornyn's posts since the primary have proved that voters were right to reject him. 

But we still have the problem of folks like Rove who want to impose their views, as opposed to what the people of Texas and America voted for. 

Let's listen to what Rove says here in the following C-SPAN clip. He's attacking the fact that President Donald Trump has dared to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) go after illegal aliens other than just the people Rove refers to as the "bad actors." 

.@KarlRove says President Trump's immigration tactics are not about capturing "bad actors" anymore: "He went from being the guy who solved the border problem to one who had created a new problem, which was all this descension in major cities... over an ill-informed ICE effort." pic.twitter.com/Pxe6PMmPcy

— CSPAN (@cspan) September 26, 2026

Rove mocks that ICE has gone to the Home Depot to arrest illegal aliens.

He attacked Trump, saying that if he had "stayed focused on bad actors, that would have been one thing." Rove claimed that Trump "turned the country against him"

"He went from being the guy who had solved the border problem to one who had created a new problem, which was all this dissension in major cities like Los Angeles and Minneapolis over an ill-informed ICE effort."

So many things are wrong in that one clip. 

First, Trump has never said he was only going after the people who committed other crimes. He ran on a ticket that everyone here illegally must go. That's what the American people voted for, not whatever Rove is trying to sell here. Joe Biden opened the door and let in millions of unvetted people. 

Now, obviously, the administration has concentrated on the criminals since those are the worst, and that's likely also helped with the crime reduction that we've seen - another thing that Trump should get more credit for. But it doesn't mean they aren't also going to deport everyone else who is here illegally, yes, even if they're at the Home Depot. 

Pro tip for Karl? 

THEY’RE

ALL

BAD

ACTORS https://t.co/C4N6Nph35e

— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) September 27, 2026

If they are here illegally, they are all "bad actors." 

One of the other things that is truly offensive about his hot take is that it's the Democrats' sanctuary city policies that caused a lot of the problems. ICE could not just go to the jail and pick up the illegal alien - as Rove suggests - they had to go find them in the community. Then, they would be met by organized leftists trying to protest them or prevent the arrest, which naturally created an issue. 

Rove should be calling out the left for manufacturing the problem, not Trump for doing the job he was elected to do, against such great pressure. 

And this, so much this: 

This is why you need to vote.

The Karl Roves of the world want nothing more than to lose, blame Trump, and revert us back to the Romney and McCain-era GOP.

Staying home doesn't punish Republicans. It rewards the dinosaur caucus of the party. https://t.co/LxR2qYyxyu

— Ben Larrabee (@Ben_Larrabee) September 27, 2026

Even Ken Paxton's ex-wife, Angela, is saying vote the GOP ticket, because she gets it. 

I say this to my neighbors in Texas: get out and vote like your life depends on it for Ken Paxton and the Republicans - because we must do all we can to fight against this, to get what we voted for in 2024, and we can't have our state turned over to the crazy Democrats.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

Help RedState continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.