Yes, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers are indeed making record-breaking Fentanyl and Meth seizures at the border. Some of these find and arrests are at ports of entry and some are in between. Customs and Border Patrol leaders say that increased illegal crossings distract them from arresting more smugglers and want more agents to be hired. However, Customs and Border Patrol have data that it is U.S. citizens being arrested.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a Policy Counsel at the American Immigration Council has researched many cases and reports of the CBP proving that 95% of arrests for fentanyl at the border have been U.S. citizens, not migrants. The analysis of every press release from CBP that mentioned fentanyl over six months showed the data that out of 89 seizure events, just 3 involved undocumented immigrants. Another report on fentanyl seizures at the U.S./Mexico Border on the methods of smuggling used, from December 1, 2021, to May 31, 2022, shows 63 via passenger vehicle/bus, 14 via pedestrians, 3 via truck, and 2 on foot. The Cato Institute reported in 2021 that: “It found that 86.3% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers were U.S. citizens—a number ten times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense.”
Republicans in Congress have continued to push this lie, even with the facts, that it is unlawful immigration across the U.S./Mexico border that is responsible for fentanyl-related overdoses across the country. One obvious problem: It’s not true. This sums up an attempt to scapegoat/blame unauthorized entry to pass border security bills before any opportunities to adjust statuses. Any attempts to consider immigration reform always ends up with divided results due to some of these disagreements.
It is bad enough that there have been thousands of deaths due to fentanyl, and we must stop its use. It won’t stop by banning entry to the U.S., putting in super-surveillance equipment, or increasing the number of border patrol agents. Congressman Maxwell Frost (Florida) dispeled the anti-immigration rhetoric during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee in February 2023. After he quoted the Cato Institute data, he said: “The situation deserves this committee’s attention because there is a crisis at the border. But the crisis is not a criminal one. It’s a humanitarian one.” The truth must be told.
