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SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Blake Moore was recently elected to House Republican leadership, but the Utah Republican often keeps a relatively low profile in the national press.
That was not the case Tuesday, after Moore cast a decisive vote to doom — at least for now — the House Republican Caucus' effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border crisis.
Moore said as much during a meeting with the Utah House minority caucus at the Capitol in Salt Lake City Thursday, saying, "I've made a lot of news lately," when the subject of immigration came up. Moore said earlier this week he's still supportive of impeaching Mayorkas, but voted against the resolution because it was initially tied — which technically counts as a loss — and by voting no he could move to "reconsider" the impeachment at a future date.
Only days after Senate Republicans — including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah — voted down a bipartisan border security and foreign aid package, Moore spoke of the need to address the situation at the border through legislation.
"It cannot continue to be a pingponging issue from administration to administration," the congressman said.
The Senate border bill wasn't as conservative as Moore would have liked, but it would have been an improvement over the status quo by capping the number of border crossings, he said.
"I don't believe that bill goes far enough," Moore said. "Some of the caps that are placed on, they may be too high for a lot of people — and candidly for me, too — but from what is now, being infinity, there is an improvement element."
House Majority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said she was optimistic that the bipartisan effort would get through, and was surprised to learn of the backlash. Romero, the president of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, said border safety and immigration is a key issue for the organization and the community.
"We really thought the Senate compromise and what we were hearing is it was good, and then I wake up the next day and all hell breaks loose," she said.
Moore said he would like to see a permanent solution for Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children — and other reforms to allow for legal immigration to bring workers to fill much-needed positions.
"We have to be willing to look at the southern border as well," he said, adding that he's in support of a return to the "remain in Mexico" policy under which migrants seeking asylum wait south of the border while their claims are processed. Fixing that, he said, "would be a huge win on the pressure on the border."
