Texas Rep. Roy to skip GOP's border visit, blasts party's 'historical failure' on issue

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy will not participate in an upcoming House Republican visit to the southern border, asserting that Texans require immediate action from Congress rather than more meetings.

In a letter to his Republican colleagues that Fox News obtained, Roy insisted that the situation at the southern border mandated legislation to address the unprecedented influx of new arrivals. House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to travel with several dozen lawmakers on Wednesday to the Lone Star State to meet with local border official and survey the situation.

"Given the purposeful disregard of our laws by Democrats and the total historical failure of Republicans to respond with even a whimper (as recently as 2018 when controlling the House, Senate, and the White House), the time has long passed for Republicans to address the threat at our border," Roy asserted.

While he approved of Johnson's efforts to highlight the issue, he nonetheless urged Congress to take bolder steps toward improving the situation and to ignore concerns over a government shutdown in the event of a major funding fight.

"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," he wrote. 

"To be certain, use of our constitutional authority to withhold funds to force adherence to the law comes with cries of ‘government shutdown’ and concerns we will fail to sustain key priorities such as funding for troops and Border Patrol agents themselves," Roy went on. "These claims can be dismissed if we pass legislation to fund those very basic responsibilities…while withholding funding for the vast majority of the federal government until it performs its basic duty to defend the borders of a supposedly sovereign nation."

Roy's call for action comes amid an ongoing standoff in the Senate over pairing border security with foreign military aid. President Joe Biden has sought to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine amid the conflicts in both countries. Republicans have insisted the U.S. must not prioritize the preservation of foreign borders without addressing their own and hope to tie the aid to Ukraine with significant reforms to the asylum system and funding to bolster border enforcement.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.