Fentanyl Crossing Our Southern Border Is Killing Kentuckians
‘Kentucky isn’t the only state losing thousands of its people to lethal drugs produced by China and shipped in by Mexican cartels. Since the Biden Administration has ignored a functionally open southern border, every state in America has faced border state problems… [U]ntil the Biden Administration decides to address the border crisis unfolding on its watch, my fellow Kentuckians will continue to fight a steep uphill battle.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding fentanyl and the border crisis:
“‘Losing a child is the hardest thing that can ever happen to a parent. It’s out of the natural order.’
“Madam President, those are the words of a grieving father in Bowling Green, Kentucky. After struggling for years against opioid addiction, his son was killed by a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2021.
“That year marked a second straight year in which overdose deaths in the Commonwealth set a new all-time record. Thousands of lives are now claimed each year by a scourge of deadly drugs.
“Last week, I met with narcotics officers from across Kentucky who work on the front lines of this crisis. They told me that rampant flows of illicit drugs had driven the price of a pound of fentanyl down to less than a third of a what it cost dealers in 2020.
“That’s right. Working families are paying more for just about everything on President Biden’s watch. But drug dealers, with unprecedented access to massive flows of foreign drugs, are making out like bandits. The one thing that’s gotten cheaper under this Administration is the last thing we want Americans buying.
“The officers were crystal clear on the bottom line: They won’t be able to beat the fentanyl crisis until Washington decides to do something about the southern border crisis.
“Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 14,700 pounds of fentanyl. And just a third of the way through the current fiscal year, they’ve already seized another 12,500 pounds.
“But the growing death toll from fentanyl-related overdoses tells us that more than enough of this lethal drug is still flowing unchecked.
“Kentucky isn’t the only state losing thousands of its people to lethal drugs produced by China and shipped in by Mexican cartels. Since the Biden Administration has ignored a functionally open southern border, every state in America has faced border state problems.
“Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 2.7 million illegal immigrants. That was far-and-away the highest annual count they had ever seen.
“Without a coherent, coordinated response from the Biden Administration, front-line states from Florida to Texas to Arizona have had to take the response to catch-and-release into their own hands.
“These states have dealt with soaring arrivals by busing illegal immigrants to so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions in the interior. Colorado’s Democratic governor followed suit.
“But setting aside the record-shattering numbers of illegal immigrants who are met and processed at the border, CBP estimates that 1.2 million more people have crossed the border and got away since President Biden took office.
“That’s two times the population of my hometown of Louisville, just disappearing into our country!
“Madam President, 98 of the illegal immigrants CBP apprehended last fiscal year were watch-listed terrorists.
“Thousands were convicted criminals. And along with them, as Kentucky’s narcotics officers understand all too well, came millions upon millions of lethal doses of fentanyl.
“I’m proud of the Commonwealth’s first responders who are fighting back against this truly devastating killer.
“But until the Biden Administration decides to address the border crisis unfolding on its watch, my fellow Kentuckians will continue to fight a steep uphill battle.”
###
Related Issues: Immigration, Homeland Security, Fentanyl, Inflation, Crime, Economy
Next Previous
