Chip Roy

House Floor Speech on the Texas Border Crisis

delivered 28 July 2021, Washington, D.C.

Audio AR-XE mp3 of Address

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I thank the Speaker.

I appreciate what my colleague earlier offered as the -- for the previous question with respect to Title 42 because what we're seeing at the border is an absolute travesty. And yet my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to do nothing, literally nothing about that today, even as we see people spilling across the border who are clearly testing positive for COVID.

We have a hotel in La Joya, Texas that is literally filled right now with individuals who are heavily testing positive for COVID. These are the facts on the ground. And I know my friend, the Speaker, knows how bad it is at the border, knows how bad it is in Laredo, knows how bad it is in Del Rio, knows how bad it is in McAllen.

I've got a text here from a sheriff in a small Texas town, saying,

We're passing an emergency declaration tonight at city council that no illegal immigrants can be released in the city of Uvalde per the CDC guidelines of countries [counties?] on their list without a negative COVID test, and we have had our health authority write orders that give us the authority to have them -- government Border Patrol, and immigrant [Immigration?] -- quarantined for 10-14 days.¹

We have a crisis at our border and we're playing footsie with mask mandates in the People’s House.

I mean, it’s absolutely absurd what this body is doing, the People's House. It's an embarrassment. It's a mockery. And the American people are fed up. They want to go back to life. They want to go back to business. They want to go back to school without their children being forced to wear masks, to be put in the corner, to have mental health issues.

And we’re running around here and the Speaker comes down here at ten o'clock in the morning saying we gotta wear masks in the People's House while we've got thousands of people pouring across our border -- and Democrats don't do a darn thing about it -- heavily infected with COVID.

What a mess. CDC about to reverse on indoor masking for the *vaccinated*. This is some serious nanny state stuff that will only breed resentment. Covid was always going to be endemic and the response heavily reliant on personal responsibility.

— talmon joseph smith (@talmonsmith) July 27, 2021

We have the New York Times, okay, today: "What a mess. CDC about to reverse on indoor masking for the "vaccinated" (quote, unquote). "This is some serious nanny state stuff that will only breed resentment."    

No kidding. Consider resentment being magnified right here on the floor of the House of Representatives. We are absolutely sick and tired of it and so are the American people. This sham of an institution is doing nothing for the American people, nothing for the betterment of the people that send their representatives here.

I just met this morning with an organization that tries to take care of people from human trafficking, met with an elected official from Mexico, while cartels are raping and pillaging and killing.

And we have people infected with COVID coming [through] our southern border into Texas and you all put masks, masks up front here, here on the People's House? We gotta go around and see -- okay, we can't come to the floor, I can't execute my Constitutional duty unless I wear a mask.  

Well, which is it: vaccines or masks? Do the vaccines work or they don't work? Do the masks works [sic] or they don't work? I'd like to know which it is. I'd like Dr. Fauci to come down and answer a single question about natural immunity. If you've been infected with the virus, do you have immunity? Or are they just going to go around poking people, saying, "You must take a vaccine." "Oh, but sorry the vaccine doesn't work. You must wear a mask."

This institution is a sham and we should adjourn and shut this place down.

Page Updated: 8/25/21

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