Rep. Dan Crenshaw to Newsmax: States Sent Troops to Texas to Score Political Points

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Tuesday slammed several red-state governors for pulling their National Guard troops and law enforcement personnel away from their posts at the U.S.-Mexico border, telling Newsmax they were using the situation for politics rather than to help his state protect the country from illegal immigration.

"It seems to me that governors outside of Texas, all of them, really just wanted a talking point, right?" Crenshaw told Tuesday's "National Report." "They wanted to say that they cared about the borders crisis, and so they sent a couple of dozen National Guardsmen there to sort of keep watch. It's not enough."

According to a report in The Washington Examiner, Arkansas, South Dakota, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio have pulled back their National Guard or state troopers, leaving a total of only 11 out-of-state personnel in Texas to help with the migrant surge situation.

"I heard excuses like, well, it's too expensive," Crenshaw said in response. "You know, Texas has spent billions of dollars over the last few years on border security, billions of dollars. I don't know what these other states are doing."

Further, if the other governors are looking to campaign slogans for sending troops to Texas, "we're not going to let them have it," said Crenshaw, because even when they did send in National Guard soldiers, they were not qualified to help.

"If they want to help, if they actually care about the southern border, they need to send National Guardsmen that are also qualified to actually conduct arrests," said Crenshaw, who has served as a U.S. Navy SEAL officer.

In recent weeks, Texas has been using the trespassing laws as a reason to capture and jail illegal immigrants, and "we could use some help," he added.

"Sending a few grand Guardsmen for a month or two and just patting yourself on the back, that's not helping," Crenshaw said. "We also need more immigration judges. That is the one thing I can get some of my Democrat colleagues to agree with me on, is more funding for immigration judges and asylum officers so that we can adjudicate these claims faster."

Crenshaw also slammed the Biden administration for the immigration surge, taking particular aim at Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and calling for his impeachment.

The border situation, Crenshaw said, is an "abomination," and Mayorkas has been "deliberately derelict in his constitutional duty to enforce the law."

"[This administration] has taken zero actions to manage this crisis, but the action they have taken when they actually lift a finger, it's to make it worse," Crenshaw said. "Americans are sick of it. The vast majority of Americans do not want this."

Crenshaw also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her appointment as border "czar" a part of the administration's "deliberate dereliction of duty," said Crenshaw.

"She's an open border advocate," he said. "Everybody should all step down and let serious people take charge because it is what the American people want."

Crenshaw, meanwhile, praised Abbott's order banning vaccine mandates in Texas.

"It's completely unnecessary to mandate vaccines when you have over 70% of Americans that are already vaccinated and then a huge number of Americans that have natural immunity," said Crenshaw, adding President Joe Biden's mandates have created a "chilling" effect for business.

Finally, the congressman discussed a children's book he has written, "Fame. Blame in the Raft of Shame," which addresses cancel culture.

"Conservative parents need tools for their kids," he said. "There's not a lot of conservative-minded children's books out there ... as you read it, you will be able to see my personal story sort of infused throughout it, and it's about how to stand up to cancel culture. It's about how to forgive."

The book is only being sold on Brave Books, which features books written by "conservative icons" for children ages 4-12 to teach them a "foundational conservative value" in the wake of the growing "progressive agenda."

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