House

Chip Roy knocks Trump over border claim: ‘That didn’t happen’

by Nick Robertson - 02/07/24 8:33 AM ET

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) took a dig at former President Trump in a House floor speech Tuesday, denying the former president’s claim that any executive could unilaterally close the southern border.

Trump’s comments in a social media post Tuesday came after House Republicans shut down a bipartisan Senate border security bill, claiming President Biden should instead unilaterally stop all migrants from entering the U.S. using executive orders.

“No, we’re not just going to pass the buck and say that, ‘Oh, any president can walk in and secure the border,’” Roy said, referring to Trump’s post. “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 Roy did compliment the Trump administration for work to secure the border, even without the total shut down Trump advocated for Tuesday.

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“But what did happen was that that administration, led by the president, led by people who believe in America, led by strong leaders at [the Department of Homeland Security], they worked to secure the border, they worked to get those numbers down,” he said. “They worked to force Mexico to hold people in place with the migrant protection protocols.”

A House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unexpectedly failed Tuesday, after Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) joined two other Republicans in voting against it, and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) surprisingly attended to vote despite a recent surgery.

Republicans claimed Mayorkas’s poor job performance was impeachable, which Democrats and the GOP dissenters challenged.

In his floor speech hours after that vote, Roy urged Republicans to refocus on border security policy.

“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,” he continued. “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.”