The Other, Even Deadlier, Crisis at the Border: Fentanyl
Nearly 5 million illegal border-crossings have been recorded since Joe Biden took office and promptly carried through on his promise to gut border and immigration enforcement.
These lawless policies have taken a toll on the migrants themselves. Thousands have died along the way and countless more abused by the criminal cartels that smuggle them to the border. Border Patrol agents and local police and sheriffs heroically rescue many more from drowning in the Rio Grande or dying in the hostile border terrain.
They are also taking a toll on the health and safety of the American people. What has been termed a “tsunami of death” by fentanyl that is also directly tied to the border chaos President Biden and his administration have deliberately unleashed. Compounding the tragedy and the outrage over the plague of fentanyl is that this lethal drug trade is controlled by entities hostile to the United States: The Mexican drug cartels and the government of China.
The component chemicals in the fentanyl are primarily cooked up in three labs in China – and, of course, nothing happens in that country without the knowledge and approval of Chinese Communist Party. From the Chinese labs the chemicals are shipped to the shores of Mexico (with little effort on the part of the Mexican government to interdict it) where it is turned into fentanyl by two of that country’s most powerful drug cartels. From the fentanyl labs in Mexico, the finished product – in the form of deadly pills – are shipped to the U.S. border and smuggled across. From there they are shipped to cities and towns all across the country where they kill and destroy the lives of Americans.
Overwhelmed by the unprecedented surge of illegal migration the Biden administration has triggered, Customs and Border Patrol have little chance of stopping the entry of the lethal narcotic before it hits the streets of America. “Ninety percent of our resources are tied up processing [illegal] immigrants,” says National Border Patrol Union Chief Brandon Judd. “The cartels exploit that Border Patrol agents are tied up. That means the border is wide open for them.”
In response to criticism that the administration’s border policies are responsible for the growing number of fentanyl deaths, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lamely boasted of a 200 percent increase in fentanyl seizures in July. What she failed to mention is that if the drug cartels are willing to endure a 200 percent increase in seizures of their product, it must also mean that they are succeeding in getting many more times that amount into the country. In fact, the seized drugs are a small cost of a very profitable business. Just $4,000 worth of chemicals used to produce a kilo of fentanyl has a street value of $1.2 million.
But the government malfeasance doesn’t end with Biden administration. One of the key transit points for the fentanyl and other drugs entering across our unsecured border is the Hunts Point produce market in The Bronx, where it arrives along with the fruits and vegetables. In addition to taking advantage of federal policies that make it easy for narcotics to cross the border, the cartels are also capitalizing on New York State’s no-bail laws, which mean even drug traffickers are turned loose.
While New York City Mayor Eric Adams has declared virtual war against Texas Governor Greg Abbott who has bused a few thousand migrants to the Big Apple, Hizzoner remains mum on the issue of how the migrants got to Texas in the first place, nor is he demanding that the federal government take steps to prevent the influx of lethal drugs that are responsible for a growing number of deaths in his city.
Sunday will mark the 21st anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 that claimed the lives of 2,977 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – an event that galvanized a forceful national response. Last year, under President Biden’s watch, 36 times as many Americans, 107,622, died of drug overdoses – 71,238 from the fentanyl that is pouring across the border – while the administration works to make our borders even less secure.