Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently warned that there has been a significant increase in the amount of fentanyl, an opioid drug, being smuggled into the U.S. through the Texas-Mexico border. In an interview with Fox News, the Republican governor revealed that Border Patrol apprehended over 170,000 illegal immigrants entering the country in April, which he says is a “tenfold increase” compared to last year, when only around 17,000 people were caught.
“There [are] dangerous drugs coming across the border. For your audience who may not know, two milligrams of fentanyl is a fatal dose. And so, know this, we had… [an] almost 800% increase April over April of the amount of fentanyl that has been apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety. We have obtained enough fentanyl coming across the border to kill every single person in the state of New York,” he said on the show, Breitbart reported.
Recent data published by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows that the agency has seized around 6,494 pounds of fentanyl in the fiscal year ending in April 2021, which represents an over 35 percent increase compared to the 4,776 pounds seized in the entire 2020 fiscal year.
Assuming two milligrams of fentanyl is a fatal dose, one pound, which contains 453,592 milligrams, can potentially kill up to 226,796 people. As such, the 6,494 pounds of fentanyl seized by CBP could potentially kill over 1.4 billion people. CBP data also showed that the agency encountered 178,622 migrants attempting to enter the United States via the Southwest border in April, which is consistent with Abbott’s numbers.
“Day after day, CBP rescues migrants abandoned in harsh terrain, left for dead with no food or water. CBP is committed to enhancing the security of the U.S. border and helping save the lives of vulnerable migrants,” CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement.
China fails to keep its promises
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According to a November 2018 report published by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China is the largest source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-like substances in the United States. Fentanyl is shipped from China directly or indirectly through Mexico.
The report also notes that “domestically, China does not have a fentanyl abuse problem.” In a video published in August 2019, exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui explains, “Think about it. Any person who sells fentanyl in China is arrested and will be immediately executed. However, the drug is now sold to the United States in large quantities, yet the Chinese government remains silent.”
Wengui also revealed that a Chinese professor had learned how to synthesize fentanyl at MIT. He returned to China and submitted a report to the National Security Department proposing that Beijing weaponize fentanyl and weaken the United States.
In late 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the then-president Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. After the meeting, the White House released a statement saying that Xi had agreed to designate fentanyl as a controlled substance. However, Xi failed to honor his promise to crack down on fentanyl distribution, according to a Trump tweet in August 2019.
Lax border security
In an interview with Breitbart in March this year, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty revealed that “several sheriffs” informed him that drug smuggling had increased during President Joe Biden’s presidency. He stated that China is pumping fentanyl into Mexico, where it is used as a component to manufacture drugs that are “killing our kids in Tennessee.”
In February, Republican Senator Tom Cotton criticized the Biden administration for wanting to decrease the deportation of illegal immigrants despite the fact that many were caught dealing drugs. “It’s the Biden administration policy to allow illegal aliens to stay in America even after they: -Deal fentanyl and heroin -Commit fraud -Commit assault -Drive drunk -Launder money,” he said in a tweet.Later in February, Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said at a parliamentary committee meeting that “China is one of the main source countries of fentanyl.” According to Canadian government data, 82 percent of accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths between January 2020 and September 2020 involved the use of fentanyl.
