[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a constant 
issue in front of the American people that has haunted, I think, and 
will haunt this President during his tenure in the White House. It is a 
subject that my Republican colleagues and I have highlighted in this 
Chamber--we did just several weeks ago--and this is the continued lack 
and disregard for border security in our country.
  Last week, the White House Press Secretary said that when it comes to 
the Biden administration and border security:

       We're going to secure the border and do the work.

  Well, I wonder what it was that has found this newfound urgency at 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And why has it taken 785 days for the Press 
Secretary to acknowledge the problem?
  Maybe it is the record 2.7 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 
2022. Or could it be the more than 4.9 million illegal border crossings 
since President Biden took office? Or how about, for the first time in 
history, monthly apprehensions at the southern border have surpassed 
150,000 for 24 consecutive months? Or that in a season when illegal 
border crossings are typically lower, Customs and Border Protection 
encounters rose 2 percent last month with heroine seizures increasing 
99 percent and fentanyl seizures increasing 58 percent?
  Whatever the reason--whatever the reason--I sure would like to 
welcome the White House to the same page that we as Republicans have 
been on since day one of this administration.
  While my colleagues and I have been sounding constant alarms about 
the porousness of our border, the Biden administration has, No. 1, 
stopped making needed updates to our physical border system, leaving 
gates inoperational and open; they have halted deportations and have 
been inconsistent in implementing effective policies that kept illegal 
border crossings under that 150,000 level for 4 consecutive years 
prior. There is no denying that this crisis is a self-manufactured 
crisis.
  Maybe most encompassing of their priorities regarding security of our 
country is that the Department of Homeland Security is one of the few 
Agencies--and they are the ones tasked with this difficult issue--is 
one of the few Agencies facing an overall budget cut in the President's 
latest budget proposal. Remember, a budget is your priorities; it is 
where you want to do your work.
  In an age where it seems that the President and the Congressional 
Democrats cannot spend enough, they decide to make room for more 
spending and their radical priorities by putting the Agency in charge 
of defending our homeland on the chopping block first. I don't know 
about you, but that doesn't seem like something an administration that 
is going to ``secure the border'' should be doing.

  Perhaps even more alarming are the comments made by the DHS Secretary 
regarding their budget allotment. Secretary Mayorkas outlines six 
priorities in the budget summary that he claims the Agency can work to 
accomplish with the help of the budget. Toward the top of the list--
this is the Department of Homeland Security. Toward the top of the 
list, ``invest in climate.'' The second-to-last priority, ``help secure 
the border.'' That is simply unacceptable, especially as migrant 
encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2023--where we are in 
now--are already outpacing the records set in 2022.
  My colleagues and I hear the Biden administration quite clear: 
Securing the border has not been and never will be a priority for this 
President or his Department of Homeland Security.
  What makes this admission so devastating is that while the 
administration continues to balk at serious attempts to secure the 
southern border, countless Americans are dying at the hands of the 
illicit drugs that make their way into our communities through that 
same southern border. Last month alone, 2,282 pounds of fentanyl--which 
we know is lethal in extremely, extremely small doses and small 
amounts--and 10,333 pounds of methamphetamine were seized at the 
southern border. That amount of fentanyl is the equivalent to 517 
million lethal doses.
  Our Border Patrol is stretched unfathomably thin with very little 
support from the administration. There is no telling how many--the 
amount of drugs that are getting through undetected. I was just talking 
about the ones that we got.
  Just last month, I spoke in this Chamber regarding a recent drug bust 
in my home State of West Virginia. As investigators from the U.S. 
Attorney's Office in the Northern District of West Virginia recovered 
cocaine, meth, and fentanyl, they discovered that these deadly 
substances had been shipped directly through the U.S.-Mexican border to 
Ohio via a tractor-trailer. The connection between the southern border 
crisis and our addiction epidemic back home could not be any clearer. I 
have said it before, and I will say it again: Every State--my State--is 
a border State.
  While President Biden and his administration continue to put 
confusing and often conflicting words before action, if they even take 
action, my colleagues and I continue to make it a concerted effort to 
get to the bottom of this chaos.
  Just this past weekend, I joined a bipartisan, bicameral group of 
lawmakers to travel to Mexico City where we met--with quite lengthy 
meetings--with Mexico's President Lopez Obrador. While there, we held 
meetings on the United States security posture with regard to Mexico, 
the chaos at our border, the devastating impacts of fentanyl in our 
communities, and the violence and trafficking perpetrated by the 
Mexican cartels. All these issues are top concerns to us here in this 
country.
  It is clear that Mexico needs to continue to address corruption at 
their ports of entry, and the President emphasized this. They need to 
focus on the fentanyl precursors coming from China that are coming into 
our country.
  I am very excited and happy that we secured a commitment from 
President Lopez Obrador that their administration will confront China 
regarding fentanyl precursors being shipped into their country. This is 
a major step in cutting fentanyl trafficking in the United States at 
its source and is needed to alleviate the chaos and corruption 
currently happening at the border between our two countries.
  There is no way to deny that both the United States and Mexico--that 
border has stressed our countries beyond belief. I think we serve as 
partners with Mexico. We need to be partners--and good partners--with 
Mexico to solve this problem.
  We are facing historic levels of illegal immigration. We must 
continue to meet these challenges with urgency and a willingness to 
work together, and we certainly got that message conveyed to the 
Mexican President and a reciprocal message coming back from him and his 
administration.
  As my Republican colleagues and I will continue to make clear today, 
Republicans stand for solutions and not just spending. We stand for 
action, and we also stand for border security.
  I encourage President Biden to join us in this effort and work toward 
bipartisan border solutions that are effective; that support our Border 
Patrol officers; and that also, in the end, will save countless lives.
  With that, I yield the floor.