by Chris Russo – President, Texans for Strong Borders
Following conservative State Rep. Steve Toth’s decision to run for Congress there is an open race to succeed him in Texas House District 15—a staunch Republican district that contains much of The Woodlands and southern Montgomery County. Unfortunately, the first name to emerge to fill this seat is Brad Bailey, a local city councilman and restaurateur who has been one of the leading advocates for granting amnesty to illegal aliens in the Lone Star State.
In 2012, the Republican Party of Texas delegates were hoodwinked into adopting a platform plank called the “Texas Solution,” which was advertised as a no amnesty border security plan. In truth, the Texas Solution called for the federal government to implement a guest-worker program for illegal aliens who had crossed our borders illegally and currently resided in the United States.
The architect and most prominent promoter of that plan? Brad Bailey.
Bailey was the founder and CEO of the organization Texas Immigration Solution, which aggressively pushed to insert the Texas Solution into the Republican platform and promoted it nationally. This plan, despite being dressed up with conservative language about border security and market-driven reform, was at its core a massive amnesty scheme. It would have:
- Rewarded illegal aliens with legal work status without requiring them to return to their home countries;
- Imposed no meaningful penalties for violating U.S. immigration law;
- Allowed illegal aliens to compete directly with American workers for jobs;
- And most importantly, normalized illegal immigration under the guise of economic need.
Bailey didn’t just quietly support the plan—he publicly and repeatedly lobbied for it. In a 2014 open letter to Texas GOP delegates, he insisted that his plan was “not amnesty,” yet admitted it would provide legal status and work permits to millions of foreign nationals who broke our laws.
He even traveled the state trying to convince grassroots conservatives to support his vision of “compassionate” immigration reform. In interviews with The Texas Tribune and the establishment’s Texas GOP Vote, Bailey doubled down, calling opponents of the plan “narrow-minded” and suggesting that those who didn’t support his guest-worker scheme were “out of touch” with economic reality.
Let’s be clear: providing legal status to illegal aliens without deportation (and having them wait the statutory period to be eligible for re-entry) is amnesty—period.
Bailey’s advocacy was so aligned with pro-amnesty forces that his “Texas Immigration Solution” nonprofit received praise and support from business lobbyists and liberal Republicans eager to flood the Texas workforce with cheap labor. His plan matched the talking points of the Chamber of Commerce, the Bush wing of the GOP, and pro-mass migration interest groups who prioritize profits over the rule of law.
Even worse, Bailey’s plan would have dismantled the deterrent effect of border enforcement, sending a clear message to the world that America rewards those who break in, not those who play by the rules.
Montgomery County is one of the most conservative regions in Texas. Voters there overwhelmingly support border security, interior enforcement, and the deportation of illegal aliens. The last thing Texans need is a candidate who wants to return us to the failed “compromise” era of Bush-style immigration reform.
Brad Bailey’s record is clear and damning: he is an on-the-record amnesty advocate, not an America First conservative and he has never apologized or recanted his views. And while Bailey claims the grassroots have been wrong on amnesty and should moderate to win elections, the facts bear a different story.
An outspoken critic of amnesty named Donald Trump came down an escalator in 2015 and launched a successful campaign for president doing everything that Bailey and his open borders friends said was causing the Republican party to lose elections. Since that victory in 2016, Republicans have moved to the right on immigration and been rewarded by voters in South Florida, the Rio Grande Valley, and across the nation.
Texans for Strong Borders calls on all voters in House District 15 to reject the candidacy of Brad Bailey and demand that anyone seeking to represent them in Austin unequivocally oppose amnesty in all its forms.
No more half-measures. No more guest-worker gimmicks. No more appeasing the open borders lobby.
We need leaders who will secure the border, enforce our laws, and protect American jobs. America First.