Billionaire Elon Musk has dived into the U.S. immigration debate by visiting the Texas-Mexico border to get closer to local officials and law enforcement, who have been contending with a surge of illicit crossings recently as they looked for an unfiltered view of the situation. His visit coincided with a recent torrent of migrants heading to northern Mexico, followed by crossing over into Texas, Arizona, and California as they sought asylum in the United States. This upswing had reversed a previous lull in unauthorized border crossings after the Biden administration's introduction of a new asylum policy.

Musk visited Eagle Pass, where migrants have been crossing the Rio Grande near a railroad bridge despite razor-wire barriers. In a video selfie posted on X, Musk, dressed in a black T-shirt and cowboy hat, called for a two-pronged revamp of U.S. immigration laws. He urged expedited legal approval as well as a significantly expanded legal immigration system, allowing in hardworking and law-abiding migrants while turning away those breaking the law.

We need to fix that at the root cause by creating a clear path to citizenship for people who are obviously not criminals but are otherwise contributing to the country, he said.

Musk, himself an immigrant to the United States from South Africa, expressed stronger pro-immigrant views. He leads Tesla and SpaceX and has increasingly gotten involved in U.S. politics that range from hosting Governor Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign launch to holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among other things.

In a 4-minute video clip played when he got on stage, Musk introduced Texas Republican US Representative Tony Gonzales, who welcomed Musk and underscored the challenges felt by border residents left behind.

Musk also has deep investments in the state of Texas, as both his companies' projects—the Tesla Gigafactory and the SpaceX testing facility—are based there.