Critics of President Joe Biden’s border policies have cited a variety of reasons for opposing his lax enforcement of immigration laws.
One common complaint is the surge of illegal narcotics into America from Mexico thus far in the Biden administration. Although the opioid crisis in the U.S. predates the 2020 election, the sheer amount of fentanyl and other deadly drugs that have flooded into the country since Biden’s inauguration has prompted fierce pushback from his Republican adversaries.
If you love your country, you secure & defend your borders. Biden, "Border Czar" Kamala, and Mayorkas opened our borders and flooded our streets with fentanyl. Terrorists on the watch list are crossing in record numbers. Military-aged men from China are allowed to walk right in!
— Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) July 26, 2023
In only a portion of the current fiscal year — between October and June – border agents have already seized a staggering 22,000 pounds of fentanyl along the border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data further shows that officials recovered more than 70,000 pounds of cocaine and about 175,000 pounds of methamphetamine during the same period.
In total, this amount of the three dangerous narcotics is enough of the potent drug to kill 6.4 million people — or roughly every person in the United States 19 times over. It also represents more than officials seized throughout the entire 2022 fiscal year.
It is also worth noting that these numbers only reflect the narcotics seized by CBP officials and not those found by other local, state, and federal agencies.
Texas officials, who have taken border security into their own hands with the ongoing Operation Lone Star mission, reportedly seized more than 422 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
Multiple Florida agencies engaged in an effort that found enough of the synthetic opioid to kill about half of the people living in the state.
A similar campaign in Arizona resulted in the seizure of about 40 million lethal doses of narcotics.
Earlier this year, House Republicans advanced the HALT Fentanyl Act with support from dozens of Democrats. Ahead of the vote, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) placed the blame for the problem squarely on the president’s shoulders.
“It’s happening because there’s an open southern border where the Chinese are making this drug, they’re sending it to Mexico, and they’re bringing it into the United States in record numbers, killing over 100,000 young people last year,” he said. “And again [hundreds] every day [are] still dying, and this president refuses to take action.”
