Capito Backed Biden’s Afghan Resettlement Plan, West Virginians Tragically Paid the Price

Breitbart News reported in 2021 that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) was among the 19 Senate Republicans who crossed over and handed President Joe Biden the votes he needed to pump more than $13 billion into the dangerous Afghan resettlement operation to resettle an unlimited flow of Afghans throughout the United States, including West Virginia.

Despite overwhelming opposition from Republican voters, Pew found 63 percent rejected the plan, Capito helped advance a bill that allowed the administration to rapidly move thousands of people into American communities with admitted gaps in vetting. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (who Capito also voted to confirm) himself conceded that Afghan arrivals were not receiving full, standard in-person screening, yet the funding moved forward anyway.

This was a ticking security time bomb. At the time, conservative lawmakers said it plainly: any resettlement scheme, especially under-vetted, would eventually put Americans in danger. And now, in West Virginia, those warnings have come true. Two West Virginia National Guard soldiers were shot: one killed, one was left fighting for his life. Many West Virginians feel that this tragedy is a direct consequence of the reckless policy Capito helped pass through Congress with President Biden.

By voting to open the door to a program that prioritized political optics over our national security and common sense, Sen. Capito helped create the conditions that literally put West Virginians in harms way. Her vote wasn’t just a bad judgment, it was a dangerous one, and West Virginia is now paying the price.