Shelley Moore Capito: “I rise today to once again speak about a subject that President Biden and his administration are refusing to address…”

“I rise today to once again speak about a subject that President Biden and his administration are refusing to address, and that is this crisis on our southern border. I have been extremely outspoken about this topic--many of us have-- especially when it comes to the need for deterrence along our southern border, the alarming drug epidemic that continues to harm my State and the entire country, and the desperate need to make changes to our immigration policy and the laws that define our homeland security. The American people see the numbers, but it is not just numbers; they see the actual human effects within their own cities and States of this rampant illegal immigration. It can no longer be ignored. In just the past year, there have been more than 2.4 million illegal encounters on our southern border--we have all seen them on our television sets--and that is more than a 180-percent increase since fiscal year 2019. There have been 169 encounters with individuals on our country's Terror Watchlist--six times the number of the past year; and fentanyl seizures along the U.S.-Mexico border have hit record highs. I see my fellow Senator from Kansas. He has spent a lot of time on this fentanyl issue because it is so devastating to our States. More than 26,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl were seized along the country's southern border this past year, and this is just the data we know.…”