Dan Crenshaw Rebukes Fellow Republicans' Efforts to 'Sabotage' Border Bill

Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw said Thursday that he is "disappointed" in his fellow Republicans who appear to be abandoning a bipartisan border bill in order to appease former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner.

"I'm extremely disappointed in the very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill," Crenshaw said while speaking with reporters Thursday morning on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

"If we have a bill that, on net, significantly decreases illegal immigration, and we sabotage that, that is inconsistent with what we told our voters we would do," Crenshaw added.

House Republicans have demanded for months that Congress take action to address the crisis along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, but many conservative lawmakers do not appear to agree with the $106 billion bipartisan bill proposed by a coalition of senators after weeks of negotiations. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that the current deal, which hardliners say doesn't go far enough to curb illegal immigration, is "dead on arrival" once it reaches his chamber.

Trump has urged Republicans not to accept a border bill that's anything less than "perfect" before voters head to the polls in November. Concerns have been raised that some conservative lawmakers are rejecting the current bill—which President Joe Biden called the "toughest and fairest" set of border reforms in U.S. history—in an effort to help Trump's reelection campaign. Johnson has said that the notion of House leadership discussing the border proposal with Trump is "absurd."

"People will make up whatever reasons they want to, there's a number of them, I'm sure," Crenshaw told reporters, referring to reasons why lawmakers are against the deal. "But it would be a pretty unacceptable dereliction of your duty."

The Texas lawmaker supported Trump during his first term in office but has since broken with the former president on several issues.

When reached for comment, Johnson's office noted in an email to Newsweek that the Senate has yet to publicly release a copy of its bipartisan border bill. The resolution is expected to be made public as soon as Friday.

"I hope it comes out soon," Johnson said during an appearance on Fox Business Friday morning.

"The House did our job. Remember, we passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, nine months ago," the speaker added. "It's been sitting on [Senator] Chuck Schumer's desk collecting dust. If they want to solve the problem, he has to bring it up for a vote and send it to the president's desk."

Part of the current border deal would give Biden authority to shut down the U.S. border if it becomes "overwhelmed." The former president said in a statement last week that if "given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law."

"Further, Congress needs to finally provide the funding I requested in October to secure the border," the president continued. "This includes an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border."

According to data provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the number of encounters along the U.S. southern border have continued to increase in recent months, including with over 300,000 reported encounters in December.

Update 2/2/24, 2:30 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional comment from House Speaker Mike Johnson.