The Border Security Battle
To the Editor:
A recent FCR letter rightly notes that “there is no advantage to playing the ‘Blame Game.’” As marriage counselors, divorce lawyers, management consultants, and wise parents remind us, be careful and respectful when you set out to blame someone for some offense. Legal proceedings are carefully established to protect the innocent. Blaming others presumes that we must be willing and able to acknowledge and own our mistakes. John 8:7-11 requires each of us, especially those who seek to govern, to be careful that the blame we place is just.
The point of this preamble is to call for clarity and precision in the immigration and border security battle. We endlessly hear that fentanyl is a deadly epidemic and migrants are to blame because they cross the border with it in their backpacks. The logic of this blame placing reasons that if we stop immigrants from crossing the border, we stop the flow of fentanyl.
The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that many changes in sources and supply routes are “exacerbating the already multi-faceted fentanyl crisis by introducing additional source countries into the global supply chain of fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, and fentanyl precursors.” As recently as this February, the Department of Justice reported a major bust led to 17 persons being charged for hiding drugs in fire extinguishers loaded in semi-trucks to smuggle fentanyl across the US-Mexico border. “During the two-year investigation, called Operation “Smoke Jumpers,” authorities made 13 seizures that yielded approximately 680,992 fentanyl pills, three kilograms of fentanyl powder, 17 kilograms of heroin, and 10,418 pills containing methamphetamine.” Other reports claim that fentanyl is loaded into cargo containers which pass virtually without inspection.
The Border Patrol reported three failed smuggling attempts in February all of which involved female U.S. citizens, one of whom was carrying 36.64 pounds in a spare tire. The other two were found to be carrying the drug in their body cavities. This latter method, and variations, is highlighted by a Cato Institute study which reports that 99 percent of the drug is brought into our country by US citizens. Very little is brought in by immigrants because that means is highly targeted by inspectors; many immigrants are willing to be caught and searched. Drug traffickers know that and that tracking immigrants who are carrying drugs is very difficult. “Over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens (who are subject to less scrutiny) when crossing legally are the best smugglers.” Finally, “Annual deaths from fentanyl nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 after the government banned most travel (and asylum).”
Recently several Senators pushed the passage of a major border bill: “The bipartisan deal included funding to secure the southwest land border by hiring additional border protection officers and providing additional border security inspection technology to detect and stop fentanyl flowing into the United States.” This workable compromise was scuttled for purposes narrowly political. Lots of effort to create a useful bill devolved into blame placing. But as the letter I mentioned above concluded: “It is the voter that creates quality in government by voting for representatives who will invest in the economy and personal safety of all U.S. citizens.”
Bob Heath Carmine