Chip Roy blasts fellow House Republicans over weak support for Trump immigration policies

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Rep. Chip Roy is circulating a letter among his Republican colleagues trying to garner support for forcing a House vote to reinstate certain Trump-era immigration policies, the Washington Examiner has learned.

In a letter to his fellow Republicans, the Texas lawmaker said the conference “should stand together to thwart the Biden administration’s attack on our southern border” by forcing votes on a bill that would require enforcement of Title 42, an emergency public health order allowing officials to turn away migrants at the borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Roy is also pushing for support on a bill that would reinstate the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which requires some migrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting the resolution of their asylum cases in the United States.

Neither of Roy's discharge petitions has received the requisite 218 signatures for the petitions that allow a minority party to force a vote in the House. As of press time, the Title 42 petition had garnered 195 signatures, while the Migrant Protection Protocols petition had garnered 133.

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The House has 221 Democratic members to 213 Republicans, with one vacancy.

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In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Roy took aim at his Republican colleagues who have not signed the petitions.

“That's the question that I want to ask all my colleagues: What in the hell precisely are you actually doing to try to secure the border?” he said.

Roy argued it is “absolutely mind-boggling that the Republicans didn't just say, 'Well, yeah, let's all sign a discharge petition to force a vote on Title 42,' and then immediately start putting pressure on so-called moderate Democrats to say, 'Why aren't you doing it?'"

“Because all we need is 218 signatures,” he said. “So, we need five more signatures. So, then, we go to the office of every Democrat who are now going to be in tough primaries and say, ‘Hey, why aren't you signing a discharge petition to make sure that our borders are secure?’”

Asked if he views it as feasible to get the entire Republican conference to sign the petitions, as well as five Democrats, Roy replied, “Who cares?”

“What the point here is to call them out for it,” Roy said. “It would be a really nice point to say, ‘Hey, we have 213 Republicans who are unanimously calling on a return to migrant protection protocols and Title 42. And Democrats plainly refused to do it.”

“All right, now let me put on my hat of caring,” he said. “I care a lot. So, yeah, I would go personally push on every Democrat claiming to be moderate and say, 'Explain to me how you can’t support this?'"

The move comes after a period of increased rancor within the Republican conference. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently told Republicans to not attack one another in public over personal or policy differences and to stay focused on their differences with Democrats as they try to win a majority next year and McCarthy tries to become House speaker. McCarthy was on a list of names provided by Roy’s office of Republicans who have not signed the Migrant Protection Protocols petition.

Asked if singling out his Republican colleagues for not signing the petitions was an example of discord in the conference, Roy argued, “The fact is, this is a tough business.”

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“Look, we're at work, where we debate issues, that's what we do,” he said. “I'm not monolithically Republican. Nor is anyone, we just need to secure the border. I don't care what your party label is. Let's secure the dang border now. So, I'm not about infighting. But I'm going to hold myself and everybody accountable to do what we said we would do. Republicans tend to talk a very big game and then not do anything. I'm over that.”

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Tags: News, Chip Roy, Immigration, Kevin McCarthy, Republican Party, House of Representatives, Congress, Foreign Policy, Border Security, Border Crisis

Original Author: Kate Scanlon

Original Location: Chip Roy blasts fellow House Republicans over weak support for Trump immigration policies