Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, we are faced today with an escalating crisis on our southwest border. We all know it. We see news of it every day, and it is very real.
As the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security, I would like to present some facts to the Senate that make the case for increased investment in our border security.
In the fiscal year 2018, Border Patrol apprehensions at the southwest border were up more than 30 percent compared with fiscal year 2017. In real numbers, over 396,000 people were apprehended.
It is getting worse because, if you look at October of 2018 compared to October of 2017, apprehensions were up 88 percent. The numbers are going up.
The facts I have laid out don't tell the entire story. Border Patrol estimates that it could be catching as little as half of the traffic that is illegally crossing our southwest border between the ports of entry, so we really don't know who we are catching, and we don't know what they are carrying.
Border Patrol apprehensions of gang members is up 50 percent from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018. Mexico is a primary source for narcotics entering the United States. This is extremely important to me as a representative from the State of West Virginia. Fentanyl seizures by Border Patrol were up 115 percent over the past year, from 2017 to 2018.
We know that a significant portion of opioids enter our country through ports of entry, but we cannot ignore the fact that we are seeing opioid smuggling between the ports of entry increase at alarming rates as well.
Similarly, methamphetamine seizures by Border Patrol have increased 75 percent since the year 2015. In more populated areas along the border, aliens and smugglers are crossing the border unimpeded and quickly vanishing into our neighborhoods, into our commercial areas, and onto highways, headed to places like Mississippi and West Virginia.
A single load of fentanyl, walked across our land border in an unassuming backpack, could threaten the lives of several thousand Americans. Failure to better secure our border will have consequences for all American communities.
I am very sad to say that my home State is an acutely affected area. In the year 2017, drug overdoses were responsible for more deaths per capita in West Virginia than in any other State. Listen to this. This is so sad. Overdoses tragically took the life of 1 out of every 1,700 West Virginians and 1 out of 46 Americans in this country. We saw a 500-percent increase in meth overdoses in West Virginia from the years 2013 to 2017. What I have learned about this is that we have gone from prescription drugs to heroin, to heroin laced with fentanyl, and now it is synthetic methamphetamines that are the threat. This is occurring while we are seeing an uptick in meth that is mass produced in places like Mexico, trafficked across our border, and then distributed across the United States. Even more troubling, these types of meth are also being laced with the synthetic and dangerous opioid, fentanyl.
In this current debate, it is easy to forget that just over a decade ago, on a bipartisan basis, Congress--and I was over in the House of Representatives at the time--was making significant investments in our border security infrastructure. What we have seen from these past investments is that physical barriers actually work at the border. The statistics show that.
In the 1990s and 2000s, we built physical barriers in four sectors: the San Diego sector, the El Paso sector, the Tucson sector, and the Yuma sector. In each of these places, the number of apprehensions dropped by more than 90 percent after the infrastructure was installed. In these areas, investment in border security has enhanced the safety and the security on both sides of the border.
Neighborhoods that were once overrun with illegal activity are vibrant. Commercial areas that were once considered dangerous and unprofitable are now flourishing with economic development. Nature preserves that were once trashed and trampled are again full of our native plants and animals.
The cartels on the other side of the border profit in places where we haven't invested. Criminals aren't going to stop smuggling humans and narcotics into the United States because we have invested in certain key places; they have simply changed their routes and shifted their tactics to areas where we haven't yet built infrastructure.
If we fail to better secure our border, we are inviting vulnerable migrant populations, many of whom may be fleeing danger in their own home communities, to subject themselves to dangerous journeys through rugged terrain. They are often doing so under the thumb of cartels who profit from the illegal human trafficking, just as they profit from drug trafficking.
We need to secure our borders and encourage these migrants to instead seek entry legally at the designated ports of entry.
This past summer, I traveled for several days to the southwest border, both in California and in Texas. I witnessed the needs that we have there firsthand. I saw the open pathways across the border and into our communities. I saw the gaps in our border security. I also saw communities that have become safer because we have provided border security. I didn't just see those things; I heard from the men and women who patrol our border each and every day. It is a tough job. It is a tough job. They expressed the need for and the value of the investments I am talking about here today.
While the need for additional investment in border infrastructure may be obvious to some, Congress has recognized that we need to be strategic in these investments. It was said on the Senate floor last week that there is no plan for these investments. I am here to tell you that is not the actual, true story.
In fact, the bipartisan fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill required Customs and Border Protection to provide us with a comprehensive border security plan, an improvement plan, to ensure that we get it right. This plan was developed sector by sector by agents in the field, and it was weighted by illegal activities that are occurring in those sectors. It was written from the bottom up by career law enforcement professionals who walk the line every day, sometimes on boats on the Rio Grande--we did that too--and know where new infrastructure is needed most.
The plan was delivered in January of 2018 and provided us with a 10- year roadmap for border security investment based on operational requirements. Here is what we learned from this plan.
As traffic slowed in San Diego, in Arizona, and in El Paso, we have seen it shift to South Texas, to the Rio Grande Valley sector. This sector covers just 17 percent of the mileage of the entire border, but it now sees 40 percent of the illegal border traffic. This sector also accounts for an outsized number of narcotic seizures and a significant portion of the assaults on our Border Patrol agents.
Through the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bill enacted in March, Congress provided a downpayment of nearly $1.4 billion toward this plan, this improvement plan.
Despite claims on the Senate floor last week to the contrary, Customs and Border Protection is executing this funding at an astounding rate. About one-third of it is already under contract. Another third will be under contract in the next several weeks, and the entirety of this funding will be under contract within a year of enactment of this legislation. They are spending it where it is needed most and as fast as we can get it to them.
In June, the Appropriations Committee, led by my subcommittee, produced a bill that recommended border security funding in line with this plan. Specifically, the bill recommended significant funding for new physical barriers along the southwest border. This is a very good bill, but over the summer and over the fall, this crisis on the southwest border has escalated.
I believe we in Congress must demonstrate that we are flexible enough to respond when the situation calls for it. The statistics I cited certainly make a compelling case.
Providing additional resources in fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2020 for border security infrastructure would be consistent with the border security improvement plan when viewed through the lens of an escalating crisis. This funding would go straight to the places in South Texas where we are seeing the most illegal traffic.
It is important to note that providing an appropriate level of funding is possible without exceeding any of our budget caps and without shortchanging any of our other very important programs, as long as we get serious about finding a bipartisan way forward.
I will take a time out here to recognize that Senator Schumer and rising Speaker Pelosi are going to be meeting with the President on this very issue today, so I urge them to reach a bipartisan way forward.
I urge my colleagues here in the Senate to take a long, hard look at the undisputable facts, which demonstrate that the crisis on the border is escalating. Our law enforcement personnel have provided us with a plan to work toward improving and solving that problem, so let's work together and get this done.
I yield back my time.
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