After months of expressed interest in border security legislation, Senator Shelley Moore Capito took part in voting down a national security and border reform package.
Meanwhile her counterpart, Senator Joe Manchin, went on cable news and called blocking the border security bill “dangerous.”
The package, which was negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators, included a range of restrictive border measures plus aid funding for U.S. allies Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Today’s Senate vote was 49-50. At least 60 votes were needed to move it forward because of the Senate’s filibuster rules.
The border proposal had come after months of negotiations by Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma, independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
The package would have dedicated $20 million to immigration enforcement, enabling the hiring of thousands more officers to evaluate asylum claims and adding hundreds more Border Patrol agents. It also aimed to overhaul the asylum system with new standards for migrants to show during initial screenings that they have a reasonable possibility of being granted asylum.
Migrants would not have been able to apply for asylum at all if illegal border crossings had reached more than 4,000 a day.
Earlier this week, as the proposal was finally released, Capito released a statement saying “I look forward reviewing the text. I encourage my colleagues to do the same.”
Today, the Republican senator released another statement saying border problems are entirely of President Biden’s making and that the president has the power to get the border under control.
She continued, “based on the overwhelming feedback I’ve received from West Virginians who have conveyed their concerns, I am unable to vote to advance this bill. This bill does not end our need to work toward efforts to secure our border, as well as the important national security interests within this supplemental.”
The statement did not specify objections to particular policies within the negotiated border security package.
Capito’s comments for months focused on the need to improve border security, tied in with support for allies Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Last month, she said changes in the law are needed. “We are going to change the policies because the only way to force this president into any action is to change the law because he obviously wants an open border policy,” she said.
In December, Capito said a border security package should include stronger deterrence. “We’re not just talking about funding, but rather changes that ensure that those who enter our country are coming through legal channels and that they are properly vetted,” she said. “Sounds pretty simple to me.”
In November, Capito said she supported an aid package to the allies but not “until we have substantive changes at the border because I think this priority is just as high as some of the others.”
In October, Capito said “we need deterrence here at the border” and maintained that what Biden originally put forward wasn’t enough. That same month, Capito said senators would likely write their own bill, adding “We need significant immigration reform that I think we could get in here.”
That meant, Capito said in October, “quicker and more meaningful asylum claims. In other words, let’s turn people back as they enter rather than waiting seven or eight years if their asylum claim is not legitimate.”
Manchin, a Democrat, appeared on “The Lead” on CNN and expressed frustration over the security package collapse.
“This reaffirms why I did not run for re-election,” Manchin said. “because I have come to the conclusion we’re not going to fix the political posturing in Washington, here in Congress, from Washington. “This is absolutely unheard of what you saw happen and a reversal of proportion that we’ve never seen before.”
He continued, “It’ll control the border. It stops catch and release. It’s changing the interpretation and definition of asylum. It holds people. It doesn’t put anybody back in our country.”