Burgess Owens tells Biden, Harris to 'get some backbone,' visit border region

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U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, called on President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to "get some backbone" and visit the U.S.-Mexico border amid a surge in migrant crossings, according to reports.

Owens -- a former NFL player who was elected to his U.S. House seat last November -- toured Texas’ Rio Grande Valley region this week with six other Republicans from the House Judiciary Committee led by ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, according to Border Report. 

Democrats from the committee were reportedly invited on the trip but none accepted. 

"To President Biden and Vice President Harris: Get some backbone," Owens said during a speech in Edinburg, Texas. "Get some compassion. Come down to the border and see what mess you've made."

"To President Biden and Vice President Harris: Get some backbone. Get some compassion. Come down to the border and see what mess you've made."

— U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah

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Owens talked about some of the children he saw at border processing centers, including a 7-year-old girl with autism he said entered the country alone and couldn’t stop crying and another girl who wouldn’t speak because she had been "gang-raped."

"Whether you’re American or Mexican or Guatemalan, it doesn’t matter," he said in his speech. "These are our children. And we have an administration that does not have the backbone to come down here and give encouragement to these great men and women who are doing the job and are being overwhelmed right now," Owens said of Border Patrol agents.

"Give encouragement to these great men and women who are doing the job and are being overwhelmed right now."

— U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah

Jordan called the situation at the border "chaos" and claimed it was a "deliberate action by the Biden administration" because of the policy changes made from the Trump administration, according to Border Report.

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He added that he hopes Biden will resume construction on former President Trump's border wall because Border Patrol agents he met with have said, "We know it works. Walls work."