Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy recently placed some blame on former President Donald Trump for the current "mess" at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During an interview broadcast by CNN on Tuesday, Roy spoke about Trump refusing to attend the string of Republican primary debates and praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his leadership in the state.
"President Trump also failed to actually fully secure the border," Roy told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "If he had worked with conservatives to get bills passed in 2018 and 2019, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now."
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that there have been more than 2.4 million migrant encounters at southern borders across the U.S. so far in 2023. This number is an increase from the previous two fiscal years, which recorded 2.3 million in 2022 and 1.7 million in 2021.
Migrant encounters are defined by the agency as the total number of people apprehended, deemed inadmissible and processed for deportation.
Roy went on to speak about recent migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border and said "we should have stopped this years ago, President Trump could have done that if he led Congress to get something done. That didn't happen."
The comments by Roy came just a few days after Trump criticized him on Truth Social, asking if any other Republicans have planned to run against the congressman.
"Has any smart and energetic Republican in the Great State of Texas decided to run in the Primary against RINO (Republican in name only) Congressman Chip Roy. For the right person, he is very beatable. If interested, let me know!!!" Trump wrote.
However, the filing deadline for the Texas primary election ended on December 11, meaning that no other Republicans can challenge Roy, as Trump suggested.
Shortly after the former president's comments, some other Republicans spoke out in support of Roy, such as DeSantis who said: "While @chiproytx is fighting to do what Donald Trump promised to do—secure our southern border—the former president is on social media demanding a primary challenge to one of the most conservative members of Congress (even though the Texas primary filing deadline was over a week ago.)"
"I stand with Chip and am honored to have his support. The time for talking is over. We must stop the invasion, and I will get it done," DeSantis added.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie also issued support for Roy saying on X, formerly Twitter, that "He fights for what he believes and he's one of the most conservative members of Congress. I can tell you with certainty that this shortsighted effort to intimidate Chip will not work."
This is not the first time Roy and Trump have criticized each other, as the Republican representative previously criticized the former president's actions following the January 6 riots.
"The president of the United States deserves universal condemnation for what was clearly, in my opinion, impeachable conduct: pressuring the vice president to violate his oath to the Constitution," Roy said.
Trump then criticized Roy during his bid for Republican conference chair, saying that "he has not done a great job, and will probably be successfully primaried in his own district."
Roy's office declined to make any further comments after Newsweek reached out. Newsweek also reached out to a Trump spokesperson via email for comment.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
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