Alex Wong/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
- In recent weeks, Trump has said no congressional action is needed at the US-Mexico border.
- Two House Republicans from Texas pushed back against his claims, saying it's not that easy.
- The GOP is now on the verge of tanking an immigration agreement after failing an impeachment vote.
As House Republicans failed Tuesday evening in a vote to impeach Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, two staunch conservative representatives from Texas pushed back against former President Donald Trump's claims that reforming the US-Mexico border is easy.
Following the unsuccessful 214-216 impeachment vote, Rep. Chip Roy railed against the GOP and Trump for likely putting an end to the Senate's recently introduced bipartisan immigration bill, which Trump has personally asked to be blamed for killing.
"We're not going to just pass the buck and say that, 'Oh, any president could walk in and secure the border,'" Roy said. "I saw former President Trump make that allegation earlier today on one of his social media posts. 'All the president has to do is declare the borders closed and it's closed.' Well, with all due respect, that didn't happen in 2017, 18, 19, and 20. There were millions of people who came into the United States during those four years."
As the conservative think tank Cato Institute estimated in 2021, Trump's administration largely cut down on the number of legal immigrants during his time in office. But his attempts to halt illegal immigration via a border wall and other means didn't work.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Houston-area Republican, chastised his fellow GOP House members in an interview Tuesday night for tanking the recent Senate immigration agreement. He questioned if it was even necessary for the party to write and file a separate immigration bill in May 2023.
"I understand some Republicans are saying we don't need any changes to law," Crenshaw said. "Then why did we write HR 2? Why did we do that?"
He echoed Roy's previous point: Securing the border isn't as simple as Trump and many other Republican legislators are making it out to be.
"Why didn't Trump just shut down the border if you just think we don't need any changes to law?" Crenshaw asked. "He couldn't. He had to make a deal with Mexico, and he did a great job doing that, but he had to rely on literally international agreements to get it under control."