Capito outline border security positions she will accept in funding bill negotiations

Dec. 9—U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is standing firm in her demand that the southern border be secured before a supplemental funding bill requested by President Joe Biden can pass the U.S. Senate.

Republicans were successful last week in blocking debate on that bill in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate. The measure sought by Biden would include funding for Ukraine, humanitarian aid for Palestinians and support for Israel. But Republicans in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House argue that border security provisions must be included in that bill before they will support it.

Capito spent the majority of her weekly media briefing discussing the migrant crossing crisis at the border.

"Everyday almost we are seeing more and more people setting records in coming across our southern border," Capito said. "This is a national security problem. It is a safety problem for our country. We don't know who they are"

Capito said she supports funding for both Israel and Ukraine, but said border security must be a part of the larger funding package requested by Biden.

"I think the national security of our country is as important as the interest globally," Capito said. "That we want to help and we need to help ourselves as well with significant border policies. And I'm going to stay on that position until I'm satisfied that new border policies will result in fewer people coming across the border illegally. But also more accountability for those who are here. Right now it is catch and release. You are in the country eight to ten years while you are waiting for a hearing."

During the media briefing, Capito outlined the specific border security issues that must be included in the supplemental funding bill before she will support it.

She said 90 percent of those migrants who are crossing the border illegally are claiming asylum, and are not being turned away by the Biden administration. Instead, Capito said they are being sent to different states across the country, and won't face an asylum hearing for another eight to ten years. Capito said statistics show that only 10 percent of those who entered the country illegally actually show up their asylum hearings a decade later. Many are simply never found again.

"So we need to screen better at the beginning rather than at the end," Capito said. "That means putting a higher level of asylum claims — a higher benchmark legally for people to enter the country, and that would cut down on the numbers. I do believe Remain in Mexico was a good policy President Trump put in effect, but I don't believe that can be a part of this policy because the Democrats basically can't agree to that. But it is one I would support."

Capito said the parole issue also needs to be addressed in the funding bill, adding that more than 350,000 people have entered the United States from Cuba, Haiti, Ukraine and Afghanistan without any type of proper vetting. That needs to be clamped down, she said, and all who are brought into the United States must be properly vetted to ensure that they intend no harm to America.

Capito said the United States also needs to implement a "Safe Third Country" policy, similar to what a lot of other countries are doing.

"It is where if you are passing through a Safe Country on your way into our country, you must ask for asylum in that country first," she said.

Biden is arguing that Ukraine will run out of money by Christmas if Republican's don't act.

But Capito said it is Biden instead who needs to act by engaging with the U.S. Senate negotiators who are working with both Democrats and Republicans to try to craft a funding bill that both parties can agree to.

While Capito isn't optimstic that the funding bill will pass before the end of the year — as Biden is demanding — she said "the tide of attitudes" are beginning to change in the U.S. Senate as it relates to securing the border and slowing the free flow of illegal migrants into the U.S.

"We've got to get these numbers down," Capito said. "I mean 2.4 million last year. And we had a month, not last month but the month before it, 260,000. And you can just see the pictures. We have people coming in off the terrorist watch list."

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens