To watch Senator Capito’s remarks, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, today joined a group of her Senate colleagues in urging the Biden administration to address the ongoing southern border crisis, highlighting the surge of illegal crossings and emphasizing the impact drug trafficking has on West Virginia.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON BORDER CRISIS FUELING DRUG EPIDEMIC IN WEST VIRGINIA: “Why does it matter to me? It matters to me because also coming across the border, not only are undocumented immigrants, but drugs are flooding across our border. If you saw the statistics that were announced today…the amount of deaths from overdoses went up over 29% last year. In my state of West Virginia, it went up over 49%...the deaths. It's fentanyl. It's methamphetamine and it is coming across the southern border. If we divert our manpower and womanpower to these over 180,000 or 170,000 undocumented who are flooding across our border and we are using every single resource we can to meet the human challenge, we're not disrupting the drug traffickers that are killing Americans, killing families, wrecking communities. This is why I care…because it is a very sad and devastating consequence of the deluge of people that are coming.”

ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HAVING NO PLAN TO ADDRESS SELF-INFLICTED SURGE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: “The Biden administration knew because of the policies that they put into place and that the president promised during his election: that the borders were going to be open, that people were no longer going to be turned away, that policies were going to change…and they had no plan for it.”

ON URGING ADMINISTRATION NOT TO REVOKE TITLE 42: “Can you imagine what would happen and what will happen when Title 42 goes away? I know because I see where they're spending the money, they have no plan for this flood of humanity. So please, President Biden. Please make the right decision, keep Title 42 in place, and plan for what we see is devastating our communities… If Title 42 is taken away this will be a problem that’s only going to get worse.”

 

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