New Texas Congressman Wants Immigration Freeze and Won’t Apologize for It

Jace Yarbrough isn’t going to Washington to make friends. The Republican congressman-elect from Texas plans to walk into the Capitol on January 3rd with an agenda that’ll make establishment types on both sides squirm. He wants to halt all immigration. Not reduce it. Not reform it. Stop it completely, at least for a time.

"We need to stop immigration altogether for a time because of how insane this has gotten," Yarbrough said in a recent interview. It’s the kind of statement that gets you labeled extreme in polite company. But here’s the thing. Yarbrough isn’t trying to be polite. He’s trying to represent constituents who watch their country change at warp speed and wonder if anyone in power actually cares what they think.

The Stanford-educated attorney and Air Force major sees what millions of Americans see. A system that’s broken beyond recognition. We’re letting in people who hate us, he argues. People connected to terrorist organizations. People who want to replace our legal traditions with something fundamentally incompatible with American freedom. He’d support repealing the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, the legislation that threw open the gates and transformed America’s demographic landscape. When pressed about restoring national-origin quotas, he pivots to merit. You want to come here? Prove you’ll make us stronger. Renounce your old allegiances. It’s not complicated.

Yarbrough’s particularly concerned about Sharia law gaining a foothold in Texas. You might think that sounds paranoid until you look at what’s actually happening. He points to the East Plano Islamic Center, a mosque in his new district that sued a Baptist ministry for preaching the gospel on public sidewalks nearby. The mosque claimed the Christians violated noise ordinances with their microphones and bullhorns during Friday prayers. A judge tossed the lawsuit under Texas’s anti-SLAPP law, but the mosque appealed. The case continues.

"That’s an example of the kind of anti-American Sharia supremacist behavior, activity, and ideology that I’m talking about," Yarbrough said. Christians preaching in public spaces is about as American as it gets. When that becomes grounds for a lawsuit, something’s shifted. Governor Greg Abbott raised similar concerns about EPIC allegedly trying to establish a community governed by Islamic law, though Abbott lost his reelection bid to Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the blue wave that swept Republicans out of power nationwide.

Yarbrough managed to win anyway. Barely. He captured just over 51 percent of the vote in a district that redistricting had transformed from a Democratic stronghold into Republican-leaning territory by adding conservative rural counties east of Dallas. Republicans got crushed almost everywhere else, but Yarbrough thinks he knows why he survived. He didn’t run from the America First agenda when the consultants told everyone to moderate and triangulate.

"I didn’t run away from any of the policy convictions of the America First movement," he said. "Obviously, that resonated with them because we were one of the few spots where Republicans were able to hold a seat and even gain a seat." He admits some younger voters were upset about the Iran war driving up gas prices, but he stuck to his principles and eked out a victory.

The path that led him to Congress tells you everything about what’s happening to conservatives in American institutions. Yarbrough served four years on active duty in the Air Force before transitioning to the reserve in 2015. He’s a major now, spending about five weeks annually at Space Systems Command in Cape Canaveral. But he watched the military and the legal profession where he worked become increasingly hostile to people like him. People who hold traditional values and won’t bend the knee to whatever the latest progressive mandate demands.

When COVID hit and vaccine mandates rolled out, Yarbrough refused the shot on his doctor’s strong advice. The Air Force gave him a formal reprimand. Baker Botts, a prominent Texas law firm where he worked, implemented a policy that would’ve barred him from the office without proof of vaccination. He resigned the day before it took effect. Think about that. A Stanford graduate, a military officer, a successful attorney, and he had to walk away because he wouldn’t submit to a medical procedure he and his doctor deemed unwise.

"The left just kept coming after me," Yarbrough said. Eventually he decided if they weren’t going to leave him alone, he’d fight back. That’s how we get citizen legislators. Not because people dream of living in Washington, but because the institutions they loved became intolerable.

He’s walking into a Congress controlled by Democrats in both chambers. They won’t work with him. He knows that. His agenda calling for immigration moratoriums and defending America’s Christian heritage isn’t exactly going to find common ground with the progressive majority. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is saying what needs to be said, putting a marker down, showing voters back home that someone will stand up and articulate their concerns without apology.

America’s immigration system is importing people faster than we can assimilate them. That’s not xenophobia. It’s arithmetic. When you combine that with cultures and legal systems fundamentally at odds with Western civilization, you’re asking for conflict. Yarbrough sees it happening in his own district. A mosque suing Christians for evangelizing. It’s a small thing, maybe. Or it’s a warning.

The Republican Party just got pummeled at the polls. The temptation will be enormous to soften the message, appeal to moderates, find compromise. Yarbrough’s betting the opposite strategy works better. Double down. Stand firm. Tell the truth as you see it. His constituents gave him a narrow victory when Republicans everywhere else were losing. Maybe they’re hungry for someone who won’t apologize for believing America has a heritage worth preserving and borders worth defending. Time will tell if one freshman congressman can make any difference. But at least he’s willing to try.

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