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SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S.-Mexico border is in dire shape, says Rep. Celeste Maloy.
Lack of control, the Utah congresswoman maintains, has seemingly given the criminal organizations that help smuggle people from the Mexican side to the United States the upper hand.
"It's worse now than it's been in past years and past decades. Everybody we talked to said that," Maloy said Wednesday evening at the end of a daylong visit to the Eagle Pass, Texas, area with about 60 other Republican U.S. House members. "We've never had complete control over the border. There have always been people who have managed to get across. But it's never been like it is right now."
Maloy, newly elected to represent Utah's 2nd District, took part in the visit, organized by House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, to get a first-hand look at the border area. It comes about a week after reports emerged of a caravan of thousands of migrants passing through Mexico toward the United States, though Reuters reported Wednesday that the group had dispersed as Mexican authorities directed the immigrants to processing centers.
Either way, border security is a never-ending focus of debate, and Maloy pointed a finger at the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat. She touted HR2, a measure approved by the Republican-controlled House to address the border issues. The resolution says it "makes various changes to immigration law, including by imposing limits on asylum eligibility and requiring employers to use an electronic system to verify the employment eligibility of new employees."
However, Maloy also indicated that Biden has the power to do more.
"The House already passed HR2. ... The Senate needs to take it up, and the administration needs to step up and address this crisis. We don't even need new laws to handle the border better — that's a policy decision," she told KSL.com.
Among other things, HR2 calls for the resumption of efforts launched under President Donald Trump to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It would also impose new limits on those seeking asylum.
Rep. Burgess Owens, who represents Utah's 4th Congressional District, also took part in Wednesday's visit. In a statement, he offered more direct criticism of Biden and also touted HR2. Biden's actions, Owens charged, have resulted "in the worst border crisis our country has ever seen."
During her visit, Maloy said she saw apparent immigrants trying to illegally cross the Rio Grande from the Mexican side to the U.S. side at least twice. She also noted the response a U.S. Border Patrol agent gave when asked by the visiting lawmakers if the agency needed more resources.
"He said, 'It's like I'm standing in front of a fire hydrant with a bucket and you're asking me if I need more buckets. What I need is for someone to turn off the hydrant,'" she recalled. "I think that was a pretty accurate description of everything we saw today."
Criminal human smuggling operations seem to "have a lot of control" over what happens at the border, Maloy said, which results in more problems than just undocumented immigrants. U.S. border policy, she went on, can't lead to "an ugly, immoral black market south of the border."
Maloy said part of the intent of Wednesday's visit was to put attention on HR2. However, she said lawmakers need to stay focused on addressing government spending issues as a pair of shutdown deadlines loom to make sure the U.S. government keeps operating.
