Republican congressman Chip Roy of Texas confronted Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday regarding the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Texas, which aims to prevent the state from implementing border security measures. Garland appeared before the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee for its annual oversight hearing, where he faced questions about the lawsuit against the Lone Star state.
Roy brought up the tragic deaths of Lizbeth Medina and Laken Riley, both allegedly killed by illegal immigrants. In response to the surge in migrant arrivals and an effort to secure its border with Mexico, Texas has taken steps to enforce immigration laws and transport migrants to Democrat-led cities, easing the burden on overwhelmed border towns. However, the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the state over SB 4, a bill that would empower local police to apprehend illegal immigrants and allow judges to order their deportation.
“We have a continued failure by the federal government to secure the border of the United States, and Americans are dying or getting shot… two young women are dead,” Roy stated. “Do you believe that Texas has a right to defend itself and to ensure that people who are in this country are not here illegally?”
Garland expressed his sympathies to the families of those killed by illegal immigrants. He also emphasized the importance of providing additional resources to the Border Patrol to prevent individuals like the alleged killers from entering the United States. However, Roy interrupted him, asserting that Medina would still be alive if the law had been followed and that Riley would not have been killed if a parole policy supported by the administration had not released a killer onto the streets.
Roy further criticized the Justice Department and President Biden, arguing that they were not enforcing immigration laws and that simply providing more funding would not solve the problem. He highlighted the case of Medina, a 16-year-old Texas high school cheerleader found dead in her bathtub in December 2023. The suspect, Rafael Govea Romero, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, is accused of stalking and killing her.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University in Georgia, was attacked while jogging in February. The alleged perpetrator, Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan, illegally crossed into the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was granted parole.
Roy criticized the Justice Department for directing resources toward a lawsuit against Texas when the state was simply trying to address the issue of illegal immigration on its own terms due to the federal government’s inaction. Roy concluded by emphasizing that Medina and Riley would still be alive today if the law had been followed and if dangerous individuals had not been released into the country.
