Rep. Crenshaw Criticizes GOP Opponents of Senate Border Bill

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Thursday laid into fellow House Republicans who have voiced opposition to a bipartisan Senate deal on border reform, even though they have not read the bill.

“The height of stupidity is having a strong opinion in something you know nothing about,” Crenshaw told CNN. “I’m extremely disappointed in the very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill. [If] we have a bill that on net significantly decreases illegal immigration, and if we sabotage that, that is inconsistent with what we told our voters we would do.

“People will make up whatever reasons they want to, there’s a number of them, I’m sure, but it would be a pretty unacceptable dereliction of your duty.”

Former President Donald Trump said the Senate bill isn’t designed to stop illegal immigration and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote in a letter Jan. 26 to his GOP colleagues that House Republicans will “vigorously oppose” any Senate bill that “would further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws.”

The Senate’s border deal, which is being hashed out by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., also includes aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Text of the deal is expected to be released soon, but the biggest obstacle reportedly is a measure that would block illegal border crossings for asylum seekers once the number of migrant encounters hits a daily average of 5,000 in a week or 8,500 in a day.

It amounts to an acceptance of roughly 1.8 million migrants a year. Although that figure would be the lowest since the 2021 fiscal year, when there were 1.73 million encounters at the southern border, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday many Republicans have cast the provision as a surrender.

CBP data shows the U.S. is on pace for a record 3.1 million encounters at the southern border in the 2024 fiscal year, which ends in September.

“The perception is already out there,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told the Journal. “And you have a lot of people up for reelection. And the perception of the American people is that it’s bad. So, it’s really hard to get ahead of that.”