Click here to watch Senator Capito’s floor speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor reiterating the need for Senate Democrats to conduct a full impeachment trial for U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
During her remarks, Senator Capito referenced the constitutional duty given to the U.S. Senate to try all impeachments delivered by the U.S. House of Representatives, detailed the catastrophe at the southern border that has developed as a result of Secretary Mayorkas’ failure to uphold the law, and reiterated the decision to take up these articles of impeachment lies with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Democrats
Also this week, Senator Capito penned an op-ed for the Washington Examiner to express the need for the Senate to seriously consider these impeachment articles. Click here to read the senator’s op-ed.
Senator Capito’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are included below:
“Mr./Madame President,
“I rise today during a historic time for this chamber.
“Soon, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to send over Articles of Impeachment against a Cabinet Officer for only the second time in our nation’s history.
“This is not routine business. Instead, this is a serious moment.
“On February 13th, the House agreed to Articles of Impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for ‘willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law’ and ‘breach of public trust.’
“This chamber will soon have a constitutional duty to uphold and I firmly believe that the Senate must conduct a full impeachment trial for Secretary Mayorkas.
“Our Constitution gives the Senate responsibility and duty ‘to try all Impeachments’ and it requires a vote of two-thirds of Senators present before the federal officer is convicted, a high standard for a serious constitutional process.
“For every impeachment in our history, the Senate has held some form of a trial, unless the federal officer resigned prior to trial. This time should be no different.
“Under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, there have been more than 9.2 million illegal crossings along our country’s southern border. Or, to put it another way, the average monthly encounters have increase almost 400% under the Biden-Mayorkas DHS.
“The record 189,922 illegal crossings in February marked the seventh consecutive month of the highest number of encounters those months had ever seen. And on top of this, there have been 36 straight months with higher encounters at the southern border than any month under President Trump’s administration.
“These numbers are shocking, but unfortunately, these statistics have become a regular occurrence under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, who bears the responsibility for the worst border crisis in our nation’s history.
“Let me be clear: This crisis did not happen by accident. We have seen the Biden-Mayorkas DHS fail to uphold the law and secure our borders, starting on Day One of this administration.
“This broad and willful effort by the Biden administration to open our borders began by ending successful Trump-era policies like contracts to build the border wall, ‘Remain in Mexico,’ also known as ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ or ‘MPP,” and Safe Third Country agreements.
“Again, the numbers don’t lie, and they certainly do not provide the administration any cover. Unlike the cover the administration gives daily to the cartels who are making billions from their human smuggling and drug-trafficking operations as long as this crisis continues.
“Furthermore, we have seen Secretary Mayorkas abuse the parole process, expanding the program more than any prior administration, which has led to more than 1 million migrants coming into our country who would otherwise be inadmissible.
“Parole is supposed to be granted on a ‘case-by-case’ basis, but under Secretary Mayorkas’ leadership, DHS has created categorical parole programs to give entry to migrants from many South American and Caribbean countries with minimal vetting.
“As this crisis has developed throughout President Biden’s three years in office, nearly half of the migrants encountered on our southern border are coming from countries outside of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
“The immigration crisis on our southern border is now more multifaceted than ever and the open-border policies from the Biden-Mayorkas DHS has allowed that to happen. We truly have no idea who is entering our country illegally.
“Now, 336 individuals on the terror watch list have illegally crossed our southern border during the Biden administration and these are just the individuals we are aware of.
“To put this into perspective, only 14 terror suspects were apprehended between ports of entry during the Trump administration. Not knowing who is in our country is a national security crisis, and at a time of heighted national security risk, that is a chance we cannot be willing to take.
“We have also seen the Biden-Mayorkas DHS abuse the asylum process, expanding eligibility to admit a record number of asylum seekers which has led to creating a decade-long backlog in our immigration courts.
“This ensures that anyone who enters our country and passes the very low screening standard will be here for years without any fear of deportation. This policy allowed the alleged killer of Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia who was brutally and senselessly murdered, to enter and remain in country.
“This will forever serve as a reminder that Secretary Mayorkas’ catch-and-release policies have allowed the catastrophe at our southern border to impact every community.
“When our already overwhelmed border patrol agents are faced with thousands of encounters per day of migrants claiming asylum, we know that some border crossers are going to slip through. These are the people who do not want to be caught and they are the individuals we need to worry about the most.
“But, don’t just take my word for it. In a recent interview, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens referred to the situation at the southern border as a ‘national security threat,’ and that the 140,000 known got-aways are what is ‘keeping me up at night.’
“This is something that all of us should be concerned about and the ripple effect this causes in communities far away from our southern border. Additionally, the drugs flowing across our border are responsible for fueling the addiction epidemic that has devastated communities across this country, including my state of West Virginia.
“In West Virginia, it is estimated that during calendar year 2023, 1,327 residents died at the hands of illicit drugs. At the national level, the numbers are just as startling.
“According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents seized an all-time record of 27,293 pounds of fentanyl coming across the southern border in FY23. That amount of fentanyl is enough to kill close to 6 million people.
“However, what is even more troubling is that CBP reported that federal officials estimated that they were only able to seize between 5% and 10% of all fentanyl smuggled across the southern border.
“With a border patrol stretched unfathomably thin with very little support from the administration. There is no telling the amount of drugs that are getting through undetected.
“Now, regarding the matter that will soon be before the Senate, the impeachment articles against Secretary Mayorkas make serious allegations and detail the crisis we have all see unfolding for more than three years.
“It is unconscionable for Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats to dismiss these charges without allowing the Senate to hear the evidence. Doing so would deny this body from upholding our constitutional duty to hear a case and decide whether or not Secretary Mayorkas should be convicted or acquitted.
“The decision to take up these articles of impeachment lies with Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats. They must do the right thing and conduct a full trial.
“With that, I yield the floor.”
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