Governors Band Together to Create Border Strike Force
Facing the disastrous results of the Biden administration’s anti-borders agenda, state governors across the U.S. have teamed up to curb the rise in criminal activity originating from the southern border.
Recently, Governors Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott of Texas announced the formation of the American Governors’ Border Strike Force. The group – compromised of 26 governors – will share information and resources to disrupt the influx of human smuggling and drug trafficking from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The creation of the multi-state initiative immediately follows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), releasing March’s record-breaking encounters along the Southwest border.
Some of the Strike Force’s objectives to combat the transnational criminal organizations benefiting from this mayhem includes the following:
· Target cartel finances that fund criminal activity in the border regions to seize the tools used to assist the cartels.
· Monitor cybersecurity issues that may increase vulnerability along the Southern border such as criminal networks that operate on social media to recruit traffickers.
· Review state criminal statutes regarding human trafficking, drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations to ensure laws deter, disrupt, and dismantle criminal activity.
· Review state criminal justice statistics and information to determine crimes that can be traced to the Southern border.
· Develop interstate procedures to fill any identified gaps or identified inconsistencies in existing plans to address border crime.
In addition, the Strike Force will direct its law enforcement agencies to coordinate with one another to intercept human smugglers along major roadways that cross state lines, as they often transport illegal aliens across several states.
Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Tim Romer noted, “Criminal organizations know how to exploit the crisis at the border, and are using it to flood massive quantitates of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine into our country.”
Director Romer’s observation should not be taken lightly. Earlier this month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent a letter warning federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies of a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass overdoses. The DEA noted that the deadly opioid is claiming lives at an unprecedented rate. Fentanyl is primarily smuggled into the U.S. through the southern border.
Last month, President Joe Biden called for additional funding to treat substance addiction and curb the flow of illicit narcotics, particularly fentanyl. One of the president’s proposed initiatives is to allocate more money to the DEA and CBP to expand drug enforcement.
Providing more resources to law enforcement to seize deadly drugs is helpful. But the president can do significantly more by rolling back his border directives that have made it easier for drug distributors to traffic and peddle their poisons into our communities.
The efforts of these state governments will help curtail the lawlessness from the southern border crisis and make their respective communities safer. The creation of the Strike Force is a step in the right direction, as state and local officials can mitigate some of the chaos aimed at their neighborhoods, but it can only do so much. The federal government has the duty and the authority to secure the southern border and end this crisis before more Americans fall victim to it.