Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) called for the Republican Party to stop funding the Department of Homeland Security over its gross mismanagement of the southern border crisis.
Speaking from the floor of the GOP-controlled House, Roy blasted President Joe Biden over his photo-op visit to the border and disastrous immigration policies. Record numbers of illegal migrants continue to pour into the southern U.S., creating a crisis that is only intensifying.
Biden’s visit was highlighted by local governments sweeping the streets of homeless encampments and essentially sanitizing the area before his arrival.
Roy commented that at least the U.S. president “was able to find the southern border on a map” and that it took him two years to get there. If the purpose of the visit was to see first-hand the carnage his lack of border enforcement wrought, that goal was not achieved.
Now, Roy declared, it is time for the Republican House majority to do what it was sent to Washington to do. That meant “we’re gonna have to stop funding a Department of Homeland Security that refuses to secure the border of the United States. And we’re gonna do that this year.”
Roy said that citizens of Texas are “struggling” under the weight of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants flooding the state.
President Biden attempted to deflect blame at a Thursday news conference when he told reporters that it’s Republicans who are not “serious” about addressing the border crisis. He blamed the GOP for funding failures, even as his party controlled the White House and Congress for two years prior.
Biden then referred to Title 42, the Trump-era border policy that allows for the quick expulsion of illegal migrants back into Mexico.
The president said he does not like the restriction, which of course has been somewhat effective. But he added, “it’s the law now and I have to operate within it.”
The Supreme Court recently extended its enforcement until next month but, according to Business Insider, Biden predicted that the Supreme Court will strike it down.
However, much like Rep. Roy, new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laid the blame at the feet of the agency charged with border security. More specifically, he called for the resignation of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the crisis.
It is widely believed that the new Republican House majority is preparing to impeach Mayorkas.
Defunding DHS may be a stretch, but Roy was correct in his assertion that the agency deserved intense scrutiny for its failure to secure the southern border. That failure extends to the Biden White House and its gross negligence, and the Republican House is right to take action.
