This Texas congressman thinks state should tell feds to stick it on border security | Opinion

Rep. Chip Roy might have spent nearly the last two decades in Washington’s “swamp” but you wouldn’t know it from talking to him. The University of Texas School of Law grad talks about politics the same way his great-great-grandfather, a Texas Ranger, probably did: Direct and without apology.

“I love Texas. I love being a Texan,” the Republican congressman who represents parts of Austin and Fredericksburg told me in a recent interview at his Washington office. Though he spent his childhood in Virginia, he was constantly drawn back to the Lone Star State, first working alongside Sen. John Cornyn, then Sen. Ted Cruz, then Gov. Rick Perry.

Even though he represents Texas in Congress, that hasn’t kept him from keeping an eye on what’s happening in the state Legislature and particularly with the border.

“People have had complaints from some of the Texas leaders. ‘Stay in your lane, Chip. You’re in Congress,’ Roy said. “I’m a Texan. I’m in my lane. I want good policy. I’m not going to shy away from where I find our failures. In D.C. we passed … the best border security bill.”

The bill would limit the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to provide parole to migrants, curtailing their ability to temporarily enter the U.S., among other things. However, it’s not moving anywhere fast in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Roy said the federal government should do much more to secure our borders, but since the border is “a crisis almost entirely of this president’s own making,” as Roy said recently, he thinks the onus is on Texas to fix it once and for all on its own.

State officials “are trying to stick their finger in the dike,” Roy said. “I respect the governor, what he’s been trying to do and trying to fight down at the border, but my whole point here is whether it’s D.C. or Texas: We need aggressive action and leadership to win minds and hearts and demonstrate leadership.”

A few weeks ago, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a package of six bills that will, yet again, expand the state’s efforts to protect Texans and our border. The Legislature allocated more than $5 billion over two years to border security.

Roy’s penchant for being aggressive is one of the reasons why he announced his support for Ron DeSantis for president — and way back in mid-March, earlier than most have even made a decision, let alone offered public support. Backing DeSantis, when so many Texas leaders still support Donald Trump, seemed pretty brave, even for Roy, who is used to standing apart from fellow Republicans.

Politicians who are willing to stick to their beliefs and be bold about them are the kinds of people Roy hopes make the right policies, whether it’s Joe Biden or Abbott, Congress or the Legislature.

On that, Roy thinks the Texas Legislature is spot-on about some issues but should have been more proactive about others. “I was really glad to see property taxes, school choice, fundamentally grab a bull by the horns and let’s go. How about a grid that isn’t freaking, like, hanging on by a thread? Because half of it is wind and solar.”

But the border remains one of Texas’ biggest challenges. Roy knows this too well.

“The question we should be asking as Texans, one, are we safe? Is our border secure? Have we handled cartels? Have we stopped fentanyl? Have we stopped human trafficking? And if the answer to those is no, then what are we going to do about it?”

Roy gave his own answer: “Don’t ask for permission, and don’t even really ask for forgiveness. Do it. and then go tell the feds to pound sand. … I will do everything in my power to support Texas leadership that tells the federal government to kiss our [expletive]. We’re going to secure the border, and we’re going to do what we need to do for the people of Texas.”

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