Rep. Chip Roy, Fellow Lawmakers Demand FBI Provide Data on FACE Act Enforcement

A group of 37 lawmakers led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has publicly criticized the Federal Bureau of Investigations for the “continued politicization” in some of its activities and operations, and has called on the Bureau to clarify when and in what circumstances it is enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the lawmakers accuse the Bureau of abdicating its role to enforce the law in a neutral manner and charge it with becoming, in effect, a political tool of the Biden administration, particularly when it comes to detaining and prosecuting individuals involved in protests at abortion clinics in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The alleged FBI overreach and double-standards comprise the latest chapter in long-running tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and state and municipal officials whose legal and jurisdictional prerogatives have gone ignored, as in the ongoing crisis over illegal immigrants shipped from border states to unprepared “sanctuary” cities who support Biden’s open-border philosophy.

“The recent rise in high-profile FBI investigations into pro-life Americans raises well-founded concerns that the FBI has amassed too much power and has become a partisan cudgel wielded by the Biden administration at the behest of progressive activists against political opponents and dissenters,” the letter states.

Of particular concern to the lawmakers is an Oct. 5 incident after reports emerged of the indictment of 11 pro-life activists for alleged FACE Act violations committed during a demonstration outside an abortion clinic in Tennessee. In another incident cited in the letter, the FBI on Sept. 23 arrested Mark Houck, a pro-life activist, who had allegedly pushed a volunteer at a clinic while attempting to come to the defense of his son. Local authorities had dismissed the charges against Houck, yet the federal enforcement