Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) dinged former President Donald Trump for allowing “millions of people” into the U.S. during his administration.
Roy delivered a floor speech hours after the House narrowly failed to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border. Though the measure failed, Republicans are expected to reintroduce it when one of its absent members returns to the chamber, which should give them the votes necessary.
In his remarks, the Texas lawmaker lamented the state of the country’s border security and immigration policy. Not even Trump’s track record was spared, though Roy did commend the former president for stemming the flow of migrants into the country.
“We cannot lose sight of the unity we have as Republicans that there is a way to secure the border,” he said. “We know what it is. We’re gonna stand up for it and we’re gonna fight for it. We’re gonna keep fighting for it now, fight for it in this Congress. We’re gonna fight for it through the elections. We’re gonna fight for it next year when Lord willing, there’s a Republican president.”
Roy then turned his attention to remarks Trump made on social media saying the president has the unilateral ability to “close” the border.
“ALL A PRESIDENT HAS TO DO IS SAY, “CLOSE THE BORDER,” AND
The congressman stated:
And no, we’re not just going to pass the buck and say that, “Oh, any president can walk in and secure the border.” I saw former President Trump make that allegation earlier today on one of his social media posts. All a president has to do is declare the border’s closed and it’s closed. Well, with all due respect, that didn’t happen in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. There were millions of people that came in the United States during those four years.But what did happen was that that administration, led by the president, led by people who believe in America, led by strong leaders at DHS, they worked to secure the border, they worked to get those numbers down. They worked to force Mexico to hold people in place with the migrant protection protocols.
Watch above via C-SPAN.