House Republican slams colleagues for trying to 'torpedo' policy 'we all ran on doing'
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) isn't happy with House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) promise to kill immigration legislation that the US Senate is working to pass.
According to reporter Emily Brooks of the Hill, Crenshaw railed against his Republican colleagues on Thursday for refusing to even consider any legislation to address the flow of migrants at the Southern border. Brooks tweeted that Crenshaw — while not naming names — specifically addressed his comments to "the right" in airing his frustrations.
"I'm extremely disappointed in the very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill. That's what we all ran on doing," Crenshaw said. "If we have a bill that decreases illegal immigration — and that's an if, right? … But 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."
The US Senate is currently close to finalizing legislation aimed at providing additional funding for border security, as well as new authorities for the executive branch allowing for a temporary shutdown of the border if crossings number more than 5,000 in a given week. President Joe Biden has insisted he's done all he can to stem the flow of migrants without additional powers over the border that would have to be granted by an act of Congress.
Sens. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) have been leading the bipartisan negotiations since late last year, and the Democratic-controlled US Senate is poised to pass a legislative package that would include many items on the Republican wish list. Included in the proposed framework is language that would allow for the automatic expulsion of asylum seekers and shortening the time for asylum to be considered to just six months (where it used to take up to 10 years). The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has criticized the framework as potentially committing "refoulement," which pertains to international law aimed at preventing governments from knowingly sending people fleeing danger back to their home countries.
"Refoulement was frequent during the Title 42 era. In addition to exposing some asylum seekers to the same perils they were originally fleeing, border expulsions placed them in new danger," WOLA wrote. "Despite the difficulty of monitoring during the pandemic, Human Rights First and border-zone partners tracked 13,480 attacks—killings, rapes, kidnappings, assaults, robberies—against people expelled into dangerous Mexican border cities."
Despite the conservative nature of the bill, former President Donald Trump has been reportedly lobbying Republicans to not support the legislation, hoping to prevent Biden from notching a win on a key campaign issue for Trump.
READ MORE: Here are the details of the new bipartisan border security bill Trump doesn't want passed
