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As the midterm elections approach and Republicans hope to win back the House, border security is one of the top issues on the minds of GOP voters.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that Republicans must prioritize border security if they win back the House and called for Biden administration officials to be held accountable for the ongoing crisis.
Roy said Republicans’ legislative priorities should be finishing the construction of the Trump-era border wall and requiring “that we’re actually turning people away at the border unless they present papers, or they are being detained for the entirety” of their asylum claim process. Roy said it would be “a complete and total failure” if the party does not pursue such an agenda.
TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT’S OFFICE SLAMS NYC ‘FEARMONGERING’ OVER MIGRANT WRISTBANDS
The Texas Republican also warned his GOP colleagues against getting “caught up” in the politics of immigration and said he supports the ongoing bussing of migrants to New York City and D.C. and Chicago.
“We deal with 8,000 across the Southwest border almost every day, 4,000 or more of those in Texas,” Roy said. “Now they get a taste of what we have to deal with every day here in Texas.”
FILE PHOTO: Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Approximately 30 migrants disembark after arriving from Texas at Union Station near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 29, 2022. (Reuters/Ted Hesson/File) (REUTERS)
Roy quipped that Mayors Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser can “cry him a river” over their complaints about a few hundred migrants being dropped off in their sanctuary cities.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the busing is to offload the burden of Texas communities being overwhelmed with migrants and bring awareness of the crisis to liberal mayors in hopes they will urge President Biden to provide concrete solutions.
OFFICIALS WARN SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS ONLY GETTING WORSE
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has claimed that the border is secure despite over 2 million border encounters so far in the 2022 fiscal year.
As a result of the lack of action by the Biden administration, Roy said the state had to take action.
“Border Patrol is not allowed to do their job, they’re being told by this administration that they must process individuals and release them contrary to law, release them under parole, release them under notice to appear,” Roy said.
“Hell, they don’t even do asylum claims anymore, they’re just catch-and-release. That’s it,” he continued, adding Border Patrol agents have “no desire to be doing that.”
Roy emphasized that Texas ranchers are getting “absolutely inundated” by the influx of illegal immigrants.
“They are in danger. They’re in fear of getting caught, their livestock getting out and it’s unconscionable that we’re allowing that to happen.”
Roy said people need to be fired over the compounding border crisis and those firings should go to the top of the Biden administration.
“Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached,” Roy said, going on to say that federal bureaucrats must be held accountable for the crisis and that “there is a conversation to be had in Congress” about the president’s role and inaction at the southern border.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during an April 2022 House hearing (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“All of this is under the watch of Joe Biden, so we can have a healthy conversation about what he’s doing to disregard his duty under the Constitution,” Roy said. “But first and foremost, we need to expose it. We need to fire and move up the chain, firing people who are responsible for it. And we need to defund the bureaucrats that are doing it.”
Roy also emphasized the need for every American family to be focused on the crisis, especially regarding the influx of fentanyl pouring across the border.
Rainbow fentanyl (DEA)
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“Every single parent should be focused like a laser on the extent to which dangerous fentanyl is pouring into our communities and killing kids. It’s happening everywhere,” Roy said.
“It’s happening heavily in Texas. It’s happening in border states from all across the country. 170,000 dead Americans.”
The Texas Republican noted that China is a main global culprit for pushing synthetic opioids to the cartels in Mexico and Central and South America, and that he has “no ability to explain why Democrats are allowing that to happen.”