WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTRF) – The United States border with Mexico was a controversial subject during the Trump Administration, and it remains the same under President Biden. 

Some lawmakers, including West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, question if the President is acting within his legal rights by ordering construction of the wall to stop. 

Senator Capito called the Southern border a “humanitarian crisis” after a bipartisan trip to El Paso, Texas last week. She said there are several issues with the system, but spoke mostly about what it’s doing to children. 

Senator Capito explained she and her colleagues visited a processing center that houses about 1,100 unaccompanied minors. She said these children are here because, in her opinion, President Biden’s actions send a message that once human traffickers bringing these children here, the children will be allowed to stay in the United States. 

I hope that the administration realizes that the signals that they’re sending is encouraging traffickers to traffic children through Mexico, who knows what happens to them on the way in, because they’re getting the message that you’re gonna be able to stay in this country.

SENATOR SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, (R) WEST VIRGINIA

The Senator also expressed her concerns about the abuse of these children on the way here, and the fact that they’re staying in the facilities at the border much longer than the 72 hours they’re supposed to be there. 

They’re staying about 140 some hours. We need to get them over to the health and human services facility for their own safety, for their own care. They get education there. It’s a much better scenario for any child and it is heartbreaking to see so many children in one place at one time without an adult, without their own adult there.

SENATOR SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, (R) WEST VIRGINIA

Senator Capito led a group of Republican Senators in writing a letter asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office if it’s legal for President Biden to freeze the border wall funding. 

Personally I don’t think it’s legal for the President to be able to say ‘I’m not going to spend something on a program that Congress fully appropriated and the former President signed’.

SENATOR SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, (R) WEST VIRGINIA

Senator Capito continued on to say that she’s heard reports of gates not fully installed at the border, gaps in the fence and other technology that isn’t being used because the $1.2 billion Congress appropriated was paused.