Austin American-Statesman: GOP’s Texans in US House tout plan

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans from Texas made a show of force in the Capitol last week, announcing a border security package they said will be a top priority for the incoming GOP majority in January.

The GOP delegation’s proposal includes plans to finish the border wall, restore Trump-era policies aimed at preventing asylum-seekers from easily entering or staying in the U.S., support the Border Patrol with retention bonuses, mark cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and restrict federal grants to nongovernmental groups that aid migrants.

“It only makes sense for the Texas delegation to lead the way in using every tool and authority to secure the border, defend our sovereignty, and protect our citizens — and all Americans — from this epic disaster.” U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington

R-Lubbock

“No one understands or appreciates the widespread social and economic costs of Biden’s unprecedented open border crisis like the people of Texas,” said U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, RLubbock, who spearheaded the event. “It only makes sense for the Texas delegation to lead the way in using every tool and authority to secure the border, defend our sovereignty, and protect our citizens — and all Americans — from this epic disaster.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Hays County, one of the announcement organizers, chided President Biden for saying Tuesday that “there were more important things going on” than visiting the border when a reporter asked the president about it before his trip to Arizona. Biden’s comment angered Texas GOP lawmakers, from Roy to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas, as House members doubled down on a legislative push they are calling “a commitment to secure the border: a framework by Texans for Texans.”

Texans are severely affected by illegal border crossings, Roy said, adding that human traffickers and cartels trafficking fentanyl are flooding the southern border.

“Our delegation is tired of watching the Biden administration have ‘more important things’ to do than protect our fellow Texans and Americans,” he said.

However, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, is not impressed with the GOP proposal and said “their focus on building a useless wall shows how truly walled off from reality they are.”

“Expect it to work about as well as their last plan with Trump — heavy on hysteria and wasting taxpayer money while refusing to take constructive steps for comprehensive immigration reform,” Doggett, currently the lone Democratic House member from Central Texas, said in a statement to the American-Statesman. “Failing to recognize even the compelling case for protecting our Dreamers, Republicans are offering a plan for stalemate.”

Dreamers are the young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, which gives them temporary legal protections. Congress has been debating giving them a way to become full citizens.

Doggett and Greg Casar, the Democratic congressman- elect from Austin who won a newly created seat after redistricting and will take office in January, are the only House members from Central Texas to oppose the GOP plan.

“Texas’ culture, economy, and entire way of life is built by immigrants — and these Republican members know it, even if they won’t admit it,” Casar said in a statement to the Statesman. “It’s sad that they fearmonger like this to gin up fear and some campaign donations. Our country needs immigration reform, now.”

All House Republicans from the Austin area back the state GOP delegation’s plan, which is expected to be introduced in the new Congress after the session begins Jan. 3.

“I spent more than 20 years as a federal prosecutor and served as chairman of Homeland Security, but I have never seen the border this broken — and we have President Biden’s policies to blame for that,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin.

“As Republican leader on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I’m urging the State Department to negotiate solutions with our neighboring countries and will continue holding the Biden administration accountable for the crisis it has inflicted on all Americans — especially Texans,” McCaul said.

Cornyn told reporters he would work to get the bill passed in the Senate if it gains approval in the House.

“I welcome their weighing in,” Cornyn said of the House effort. But he acknowledged the proposal’s tough lift in the upper chamber, where Democrats will hold a 51-49 majority. “How do you get 60 votes in the Senate?” he asked.

If Title 42 — a Trump administration COVID- 19 policy that provides for the swift removal of migrants at the southern border — is lifted Dec. 21 as scheduled by court order, lawmakers say they expect a surge in people at the southern border seeking to enter the U.S.

Immigration advocates have pointed to the detention of children and family separations that have taken place under Title 42. In some cases, children were put on planes and returned to their home countries in Central America or lived in camps on the Mexican side of the southern border.

The Biden administration on Wednesday told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who struck down the Title 42 policy, that it has decided to appeal the judge’s decision. In court filings, the administration argues that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s orders under Title 42 were lawful. Rep. Pete Sessions, RWaco, told the American-Statesman that “we need to allow the continuation of Title 42 to give tools to

federal law enforcement for protecting this nation.”

U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, also warned against the loss of Title 42. “Texas has done more to secure the border than Biden has in four decades,” he said.

U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, said, “We’ve had this crisis in our front yard for almost a decade. … I think this is the most important single issue in our country today.”

Of the 25 incoming GOP House members from Texas, only Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, has not signed on to the delegation’s plan.

Gonzales’ 23rd Congressional District — which includes 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, from north of Laredo to the outskirts of El Paso — has the longest stretch of border of any district. His office did not return a call seeking comment.