🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, sat down with Fox News host Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday to discuss securing the U.S.-Mexico border and the job the Biden administration has done so far.
Bream confronted Roy, pressing him on Democrat criticism—saying that Republicans may actually be the problem by reiterating that the southern border is open, attracting more people to come.
"Biden campaigned on it. There were people showing up to our border wearing Biden T-shirts," the GOP lawmaker said. "There's nothing hidden around the world about what this administration is doing and what Democrats on Capitol Hill are doing to say that our borders are wide open."
Roy continued: "When you put a big neon sign saying if you come here and claim asylum or heck even now you don't even have to claim asylum. In Eagle Pass where Bill Melugin was just reporting from, there's a four-acre facility processing people, they don't even have to claim asylum or get processed for credible fear."
Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Newsweek on Sunday, "Democratic candidates in 2019 were going on national television doing debates. They would raise their hands saying they'd give migrants healthcare as soon as they crossed the border."
Bensman added: "All candidates had anti-deportation platforms. That's when I noticed a surge in migrants crossing the border. They would say we're waiting for a Democrat to get into office. And the Democrats followed through on their campaign promise."
Meanwhile, the COVID-era immigration policy Title 42 is set to expire Wednesday, with border states saying they're preparing for an influx of migrants. Title 42 took effect during the pandemic under former President Donald Trump's administration. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued the order to block migrants at the U.S. border, including asylum seekers, from entering the country in order to stop the spread of the disease.
El Paso, Texas, declared a "state of emergency" due to the possibility of thousands of migrants coming per day once Title 42 expires. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said during a press conference on Friday that "asylum seekers are not safe. We have hundreds and hundreds on the street and that's not the way we treat our people."
Bensman told Newsweek that since Biden took office, border crossings have reached historic highs and that "eliminating Title 42 is putting everything on steroids."
On Sunday, Bream continued to press Roy during his interview on criticism that Republicans are impeding the process at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"You guys know, when Republicans were in charge of the White House, the House and the Senate nothing got fixed, so how do you answer these accusations?" Bream asked.
Roy responded: "Let's go to the summer of 2018 when there were a couple of competing bills. One bill...had actual status for DACA recipients, had status for about a million plus people. [It] would have secured the border and reformed the immigration system. How many Democrats voted for it? Zero."
About the writer
Anna Commander is a Newsweek Editor and writer based in Florida. Her focus is reporting on crime, weather and breaking ... Read more