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What appears to be a contradiction has an explanation. When I reported from the Mexican side of the border, I always distinguished asylum seekers from gotaways. Most asylum seekers I met were from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia. They crossed the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to Border Patrol to ask for asylum or humanitarian parole. Gotaways were mostly Mexican nationals. Even though Mexico is right next door, Mexicans rarely get asylum and weren’t eligible for parole. So they crossed illegally and avoided Border Patrol, then went wherever they had family and could find work. Under Biden, asylum seekers were given a legal pathway. Many now have legal status or an open case in immigration court. Some Cubans are already US citizens. At the time, many Hispanics considered it unfair, unjust and illegal that asylum seekers got a free pass into the country. They wanted justice, and they believed Trump would deliver on his promise of mass deportations. But asylum seekers were hard to deport. Most had permits or court dates, and the first wave was already established here. Under pressure to deliver, the administration went after Mexican nationals instead. Many had been here 10 or 20 years with no papers and no court case to slow things down. The way ICE carried out those raids infuriated Hispanics. When I say Hispanics, I mean third- and fourth-generation Mexican-Americans, born and raised in the US. The people being deported are their in-laws, neighbors, coworkers and fellow church members. It’s a distinction that’s rarely made, but it explains Tuesday’s vote. These voters didn’t change their minds about the border. They voted to deport the people who came in through the asylum system, and ICE came for the families they live next to. The first lesson is that “mass deportations” was easy to promise and hard to deliver. Wanting a secure border and wanting your neighbors deported are two different things. Texas Latinos wanted the first one. The second lesson is that Trump “secured” the border with executive orders. Republicans have had Congress for almost two years and haven’t written his asylum changes into law. An executive order can be undone by the next president on day one. That’s what happened in January 2021, when Biden stopped the wall and suspended Remain in Mexico. The same goes for the wall. Eagle Pass had up to five barriers, and asylum seekers still crossed and turned themselves in. The wall sits on US soil. Once someone crosses the middle of the river, they’re in the United States and can ask for asylum. A wall can slow a gotaway. It doesn’t stop someone who wants to get caught. So what difference does a wall make when there’s no law behind it? What Trump calls a secured border is a border crisis on pause. What never stopped, and probably never will, is Mexican nationals crossing illegally. It also raises questions nobody is answering. Most Mexican nationals came here to work. Over the years they married and had children, and those children are US citizens. The Supreme Court confirmed that in June. A citizen child can’t petition for a parent until age 21. So when a father gets deported, many come back illegally, even though it’s a federal crime, because their families are here. If he comes right back, what did the deportation accomplish? Should someone who has worked here 20 years, with no criminal record and US-citizen kids, get a way to stay? A fine and a work permit? Or should he go to the back of the line? Why haven’t Republicans written the asylum fix into law, so the next president doesn’t have to choose between deporting nobody and deporting the neighbors? And will Democrats read Tuesday as a vote for open borders? It wasn’t. Democrats have an opportunity to win over the Hispanic community, if, and only if, they don’t squander their promises the way Republicans did. Democrat or Republican, migrants will still come as long as pull factors for a better life exist.