WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) says she expressed her concerns about fentanyl flowing into the country during a recent trip to Mexico.
Capito briefed reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday about her trip to Mexico last Sunday.
The senator joined a congressional delegation that met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and others.
Capito said the drug epidemic remained one the top issues discussed with the president.
“He told us that he would go directly and forcefully to the Chinese government to try to stop the flow or disrupt the flow of the precursor chemicals that are coming in to the ports, into Mexico and then across our border and killing, in my case, over 1,100 West Virginians last year alone by fentanyl,” she said.
Capito said she also talked with the Mexican president about the flow of illegal immigrants across the border.
“Title 42 is going to go away in May,” she said. “What’s going to happen to the already chaotic border between the United States and Mexico?”
The Trump-era order allows officials to skip the asylum process and deport people who illegally cross the southern border.
– Chaos at our southern border
– The devastating impacts of fentanyl
– Violence and trafficking perpetrated by Mexican cartelsThese are top concerns of West Virginians and all Americans.
I joined a bipartisan delegation to Mexico to address these critical issues. pic.twitter.com/NrK8GHigzI
— Shelley Moore Capito (@SenCapito) March 22, 2023
Capito said she urged Mexican officials to work together to prevent more illegal crossings.
“How can we help Mexico? How can Mexico help us?” she said they discussed. “We got into a lot of technology. We got into a lot of workforce issues. We talked a lot about the cartels and human trafficking.”
The meeting was a step in the right direction, Capito said.
“We tried to be positive in terms of trying to find solutions rather than just constantly identifying the problems that we have and that we see at that border because they’re massive,” she said.