In the fall of 2020, the cartels that illegally traffic people and drugs across our southern border were facing a serious problem. Though their operations were ongoing, the policies of the Trump Administration were adversely affecting business. A robust steel wall was under construction, allowing the Border Patrol to focus on apprehensions and drug seizures. The “Remain in Mexico” policy was reducing the flow of migrants entering illegally. If this trend toward stronger border security continued, it could take a serious bite out of cartel revenue streams. The kingpins needed a miraculous intervention.
They got their miracle with the ascension of Joseph Robinette Biden to the Oval Office. In their wildest dreams, the machine gun-wielding purveyors of flesh and narcotics could not have imagined a more useful enabler at the highest levels of American government. By killing the most effective Trump border policies, Biden has allowed these criminal enterprises to amass obscene profits while poisoning Americans with highly addictive and lethal drugs.
While narcotics have been coming across the border for decades, the current political climate has allowed the flow to achieve peak levels. A new report from Customs and Border Protection details how from October 2020 until September 2021 along the Texas border from Brownsville to Del Rio alone, agents seized almost 88,000 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value of $786 million.
Among the drugs seized were 8,592 pounds of cocaine and 588 pounds of fentanyl. Compared to fiscal year 2020, those amounts represent an increase of 98 percent and 1,066 percent, respectively.
As border law enforcement professionals will attest, whatever amounts are seized usually pale in comparison to the totals making it across the border. When border agents are overwhelmed by caravans of asylum seekers, it is easier for the cartels to get drug loads across the border undetected. These are just some of the destructive consequences of minimal border enforcement that go largely unreported.
When it comes to fentanyl in particular, the damage to our country has been devastating. The menace of opioid addiction in America has been growing steadily worse in the last few years. Fentanyl overdoses have become the leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 18 and 45. Thanks to increased supply, the drug is cheaper and easier to get than ever. Dealers will also cut other drugs like heroin and cocaine with fentanyl, so that users may be taking this lethal and addictive drug without even knowing it.
Government data state that while the materials in fentanyl are made primarily in Mexico, China, and India, the southern border is the main American gateway for the finished product. From there, it is no longer a border state problem, but a national crisis.
The situation has deteriorated so much that 25 governors sent a letter to Biden in September requesting a meeting to address the border crisis. Idaho Governor Brad Little says 96 percent of the state’s trafficked drugs are sourced from Mexico.
In Colorado, the Denver Gazette reported that fentanyl deaths in the state last year exceeded all the numbers from 2015-2019 combined. The article added that more than five Coloradans die from fentanyl overdose every day.
These disturbing facts should be cited every time an anti-borders activist or politician lectures us about how the need for border security is overblown, and how allowing foreign nationals to enter our country with no rules is a victimless crime. There are thousands of victims, and new ones are created every day. They are our sons, daughters, friends, and neighbors.
While our society has long struggled with drug addiction, the current spike in opioid overdoses seems to have come from a perfect storm of events. As COVID turned our world upside down, countless small businesses failed. People lost their family members, homes, and jobs. More people entering the country means lower wages and more competition for jobs. When these crises occur, some will inevitably turn to drugs to self-medicate and numb their pain.
The last thing those people and the nation at large needed was an increased flow of dangerous and highly addictive drugs into their communities. Right on cue, Biden, his staff and his appointees responded by opening our borders, creating a chaotic situation which allowed even more drugs into the country. The result has been and will continue to be more addictions, more deaths and more broken families.
Politicians seeking praise for their faux compassion at the border should instead be held accountable for the blood on their hands.