Chip Roy snubs Johnson’s border trip, citing lack of urgency over rise in illegal immigration

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) announced he won’t attend a border trip led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this week, lamenting a lack of action among House Republicans to use their slim majority in the lower chamber to enact policy changes at the southern border.

In a letter sent to his GOP colleagues on Tuesday, Roy commended Johnson for organizing a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday, marking his first trip to the southern border since being elected speaker in October. However, the Texas Republican said he would not join the group, citing a lack of urgency among congressional Republicans to advance border security legislation.

TWELVE DAYS OF WEX-MAS: BIDEN SEEKS TO KEEP DEMOCRATS IN LINE AS PARTY EYES GAINS IN 2024

“I commend Speaker Johnson’s efforts to a take a group of House Republicans to the Texas border tomorrow so that any members unaware of the depths of the threat to our citizenry may become fully informed,” Roy wrote. “However, I will not be attending. Our people — law enforcement, ranchers, local leaders — are tired of meetings, speeches and press conferences. So, for those of us who have already witnessed this crisis dozens of times, it’s past that time. It’s time to act with urgency.”

As part of his plea, Roy threatened to withhold his support for any legislation seeking to fund the government or provide military assistance to foreign allies “until it fulfills its constitutional obligation to defend our borders from invasion.” That poses a challenge to Johnson as he returns to Capitol Hill next week with the tall task of getting his party in line behind a slew of must-pass appropriations bills before the government is set to enter a partial shutdown on Jan. 19.

Roy cited more than 10,000 immigrants being encountered by border officials each day, which he says has been caused by Biden administration policies “releasing them” at the border or “failing to apprehend them.” This, in turn, Roy says, has led to an increase in fentanyl being smuggled into the country as well as other narcotics that “[empower] enemies like China, Russia, Iran, and dangerous Mexican drug cartels.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Now, Roy is calling on his Republican colleagues in the House to use their “power of the purse” to implement policy changes, urging his fellow conservatives to similarly withhold support on government funding until border security legislation is enacted by President Joe Biden.

“This means we must make funding for federal government operations contingent on the President signing H.R. 2, or its functional equivalent, into law and stopping the flow across our border (with demonstrable near-zero results),” Roy wrote, referring to the Republican-led border security legislation that passed the House last year but has since been stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

It’s unlikely the Democratic-led Senate would pass the House GOP’s border bill without significant changes, and even if it did, Biden has previously threatened to veto the legislation should it reach his desk.

Roy has previously threatened to sink must-pass spending legislation in the absence of border policy changes, including in August when he listed several demands in exchange for his support. Among those demands included measures to tighten security at the southern border, something that was not included in the clean continuing resolution set forth by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to avoid a shutdown at the end of September.

“I am well aware that some of my ‘more conservative’ colleagues were instrumental in shooting down an attempt to attach border security in the form of H.R. 2 to funding legislation this past fall,” Roy wrote. “That was a dangerous mistake, and as equally tiresome and problematic as the excuses Republicans typically give about fearing ‘shutdown.’ Thus, this letter is directed to all of us, for while Democrats own the crisis and abuse of our laws, we Republicans own the failure to force a response to that crisis.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Johnson’s trip comes as the speaker has become more vocal about the crisis at the border, writing a letter to Biden last month urging the president to reinstate previous asylum policies such as the “Remain in Mexico” program, which was implemented under former President Donald Trump and forced asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were pending.

The trip also comes as the White House continues to meet with the Senate to negotiate a border framework that would combine policy changes in exchange for additional Ukraine aid. A handful of senators returned to Washington to continue meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday as negotiations drag on in the upper chamber.