Border Security
Floor Speech
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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise today at the beginning of this new year to talk about a problem we have talked about a lot, but unfortunately we haven't gotten the results we need, and that is to talk about our southern border.
It is not a new topic for me--I have been on the floor many times talking about this, as have my colleagues--and it is not a new topic for the American people because they see this every day, and many people are living it very close-up. Many of my colleagues can say the same because this is a topic they have unfortunately had to discuss over and over and over again, with no real results, and we are going to hear from some of them today.
Years ago on this Senate floor, I said:
I urge my colleagues here in the Senate to take a long-- hard look at the undisputed facts that demonstrate the crisis at the border is escalating.
When I said those words, it was December 2018. The number of apprehensions along the southern border then was a little more than 60,000. Over the weekend, Customs and Border Protection released the numbers for this past December, and apprehensions along our southern border were reported at 251,487--an alltime high.
You can see from the chart I have here--you might not be able to read the numbers, but the dark blue is what we have been doing all through 2022, far eclipsing the light blue of 2021, which were record numbers. But, here again, in the dark purple, which is the lower one, this is the average from fiscal year 2013 to 2020, and many times, this is five times, six times the amount in December. That is startling--startling.
But one thing that has changed over these last 2 years, fortunately, is that the President finally decided to visit the southern border. He went to El Paso several weeks ago. Well, it is about time. It certainly shouldn't have taken that long to visit a part of our country that is deeply affected by these numbers, but he finally went down.
I have been to the southern border many times. I am sure, Madam President, you have been there many times as well--quite a bit over the years. We just had several codels go down these past couple weeks.
The President has been saying of Republicans that ``it is easy to demagogue the issue and reject solutions.'' So here is what I have to say to the President in response to that: No, Mr. President, it is not easy to demagogue. It is easy to see that the issue is not getting the attention that it deserves by this administration.
The chart pretty much says it all right there.
The Biden administration often pivots to calling for comprehensive immigration reform and that Congress needs to provide the resources. Some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are discussing these very issues. But this is not an either/or scenario. Any discussions about the need for and the way we reform our immigration system are separate and apart from the need to enforce the laws to secure the border.
I am particularly struck by the President's comment on solutions. To explain these record numbers almost each and every month, we have been told: The surge is seasonal.
By the way, December is traditionally, as you can see, one of the lower months over the years, so the seasonal charge cannot be the issue.
The surge was the result of particular political conditions in relative countries.
Well, we see people coming in from hundreds of countries, not just surging from political conditions in a country.
Our economy is a magnet.
It very well could be.
It is a surge for asylum or those fleeing countries that are impacted by natural disasters.
All of these things, these excuses, are from the administration.
One thing is clear: Thousands of individuals and families are continually coming into our country unaccounted for, draining the resources of many of our communities.
But Congress needs to do our part to provide the funds and support for the men and women in the Agencies that are tasked with securing our border, enforcing our immigration laws, and stemming the flow of drugs, particularly fentanyl, from getting into our country. I stand ready to do that and have done that through my work on the Appropriations Committee as the ranking member on Homeland Security.
Now, you may disagree with the tone and tactics of the last administration, but I think everyone can agree that border security was certainly a priority, and that is why so many of us called for President Biden to go to the border himself and see the crisis for himself. The numbers under President Trump were measurably less because of his policies.
There is an irony here because after 2 years of neglect, we have seen the need to go to the border in a way dwindled because the border crisis has actually come to the President, come to Washington, DC, come to West Virginia, come to Denver.
But some of the most critical comments about the impacts and failures of these policies have not come from Republicans but from a mayor of a town along the Rio Grande or from the Democratic mayor of the city of New York. Mayor Adams, mayor of New York City, has called this situation not just a crisis, but, instead, he has called it a disaster--exactly what it is. Mayor Adams is now seeking funds to help house those tens of thousands of migrants who are arriving in New York City.
Cities far into the interior of our country are being stretched to the max from the migrant surge. This is why we have to do everything we can to stem the influx.
We just passed an Omnibus appropriations bill that increases funding for these activities, particularly at CBP, ICE, and FEMA, for personnel and for technology. But imagine the men and women who have to deal with this all the time--the fatigue, the morale, the difficulties when you are so overrun. They are just pressed beyond capacity month after month and year after year. Each year, we have worked in a bipartisan way within Homeland Security to encourage and fund increased hiring for Border Patrol agents, for example. We are way down on those. But it has been difficult to fill these positions or to even maintain the current force.
One of the things I am most proud about in my tenure as ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee is the creation and funding of a new position for CBP called the processing coordinators. We did this because too many of our trained agents were pulled from their duty stations and their mission to perform tasks that they are not prepared to do. This balance enables Agencies to go back to actually performing tasks they are supposed to do, they are equipped for, and they are trained for.
In addition to increasing resources for CBP, we must also be making efforts to increase interior enforcement. Once they get through the border and they declare asylum, they are told to come back in 5 to 7 years. Many of them don't, but that is what they are--and they are in the interior of the country, and we don't use the interior enforcement mechanisms that we have. It is very unacceptable that thousands upon thousands are waiting--in some cases waiting 7 years before they can even begin any kind of removal procedures.
We just cannot let this crisis continue.
Bottom line: The issue was not a priority of the first 2 years of this administration. That is very obvious. As I said, the chart--this is the second year of the President's administration. This is the first year which is way above the averages, but it definitely cannot be ignored. The impact on too many families, too many businesses, and too many communities along the southern border, even in our State of West Virginia, simply cannot be ignored.
I am glad the President went, and now he is fully aware, hopefully, of the problem. I sure hope he is ready and willing to act.
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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I gave my remarks on border security, and as the new vice chair of the Republican conference, I have gathered some really strong voices here to share in the concerns that I have. I am really pleased to have the chair of our policy committee here, Senator Ernst from Iowa.
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