MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., says a trip last weekend to sites on the Pacific coast and U.S.-Mexico border helped her better understand how much border enforcement efforts cost and the areas of need of additional funding. 

Capito, the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, visited numerous points to better understand how to address problems associated with people illegally immigrating into the country. 

“You can not believe the tens of thousands of cars that are going back and forth. The trucks, the billions of dollars of commerce that are going back and forth between our two countries,” she said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.” 

“You just need to do it legally,” she said about immigration. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.” 

Capito and Arkansas Sen. John Boozman visited multiple sites, which included looking at multiple prototypes of walls for what Capito described as a “border wall system.” 

“It’s roads, it’s cameras, it’s lights, it’s blimps,” she said. “A wall system pushes the illegal immigration into certain areas where you can then better control it.” 

Capito said boats and the U.S. Coast Guard need to be utilized in order to prevent the transportation of drugs via the Pacific Ocean and the Rio Grande. 

The Homeland Security subcommittee approved in June spending $1.6 billion for a border wall system, an amount originally proposed by the Trump administration. 

“He’s now asking for $5 billion this year,” she said. “In talking to the Border Patrol, they seem to feel that is an amount that they could absorb and work toward securing the border that way. We’re trying to find the money, but that’s not easy. We’re in heavy discussion right now.” 

According to Capito, changes in the law also need to take place; she said reforming current statutes should be considered, although the Senate is not close to making such legislative action. 

“Catch-and-release is not a strategy. In a lot of cases, that’s what we’re doing,” she said. “These people just disappear into our country. I don’t think the American people, West Virginians, that’s not the type of immigration system we want.” 

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz and personnel with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement joined the senators on their trip.