Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) walks through the U.S. Capitol Building on December 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

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Peter Aitken

By Peter Aitken

Politics Weekend Editor

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Over a dozen Republican lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill introduced by Representative Chip Roy of Texas, also a Republican, that seeks to pause all immigration until certain conditions related to benefits for immigrants and different immigration pathways have been addressed.

Currently, eight Republicans have co-sponsored the bill—seven of whom co-sponsored the bill when it was introduced in November, and one who joined them in December after the bill had been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Newsweek reached out to the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana by email outside normal business hours on Friday evening for comment.

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Why It Matters

Republicans have sought various means to address immigration, which they have alleged is the root cause of many issues facing America today, but party members remain at odds about the best way to tackle the issue.

One aspect of immigration that has captured the attention of President Donald Trump and the wider Republican party is the use of the H-1B visa, which allows companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations—a system widely used by U.S. technology companies. Around 400,000 of these visas were approved, comprising a mix of renewals and new hires.

Roy introduced his bill in November, around the same time Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced her own bill that sought to phase out the H-1B visa program.

Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) walks through the U.S. Capitol Building on December 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

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What To Know

Roy defended the bill on Friday during a video interview with Fox News host Will Cain, addressing the sweeping and multi-faceted approach the bill takes in regard to tackling immigration issues.

"The truth is, when you’ve got the situation we have with wide open borders under Biden and Mayorkas—or, importantly, through the legal channels with the abuse of H-1B visas, the abuse of diversity visas, the abuse of chain migration—when you have people that are being put on welfare," Roy said, adding, "they denied it for a long time because it does not sell very well. But they’re basically acknowledging it."

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Roy claimed the U.S. froze immigration in 1920 to address immigration issues at the time, although that appears to be an exaggeration of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which severely limited and focused immigration on national origin quotas - specifically favoring northern and western Europeans - followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 (known as the Johnson-Reed Act), which made the quotas permanent and lowered the limit allowed even further to just two percent of a nationality's foreign-born population based on census data from 1890. The 1924 act also completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

H.R. 6225, the PAUSE Act of 2025, currently has nine signatories, including the initial sponsor and his subsequent co-sponsors, including:

Donalds was the last co-sponsor, joining on December 1, roughly two weeks after the other co-sponsors signed onto the bill.

The bill also has three organizations who have supported the bill, including:

Correction: 12/13/25, 10:58 a.m. ET: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Roy's first and last name.

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