Is America's immigration crisis causing the fentanyl epidemic?
Washington Examiner
More black market fentanyl is being seized from drug smugglers at the U.S.-Mexico border than ever before — an indication of just how much of the powerful powdery substance cartels are moving into the United States.
Consequently, U.S. overdose deaths have skyrocketed — all while illegal migration at the southern border soars to the highest levels in U.S. history. Ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans have pointed to both border phenomena as being connected.
"The #BidenBorderCrisis is poisoning our communities by allowing fentanyl to be smuggled across our southern border," the House Republican Conference posted to its 1.3 million followers on Twitter Sunday.
Drug experts, however, point to U.S. consumers hooked on opioids as the driver for the market, a demand that Mexican cartels are eager to supply. While some of the same cartels pushing fentanyl into the country also smuggle people, they do so through different pathways: one through ports of entry and the migrants through the porous points in between.
"Most fentanyl drug smuggling attempts occur at Ports of Entry, which continue to make the large majority of fentanyl seizures along the border," a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that inspects incoming goods and people, wrote in an email Wednesday.
More black market fentanyl is being seized from drug smugglers at the U.S.-Mexico border than ever before — an indication of just how much of the powerful powdery substance cartels are moving into the United States.
Consequently, U.S. overdose deaths have skyrocketed — all while illegal migration at the southern border soars to the highest levels in U.S. history. Ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans have pointed to both border phenomena as being connected.
"The #BidenBorderCrisis is poisoning our communities by allowing fentanyl to be smuggled across our southern border," the House Republican Conference posted to its 1.3 million followers on Twitter Sunday.
Drug experts, however, point to U.S. consumers hooked on opioids as the driver for the market, a demand that Mexican cartels are eager to supply. While some of the same cartels pushing fentanyl into the country also smuggle people, they do so through different pathways: one through ports of entry and the migrants through the porous points in between.
"Most fentanyl drug smuggling attempts occur at Ports of Entry, which continue to make the large majority of fentanyl seizures along the border," a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that inspects incoming goods and people, wrote in an email Wednesday.
