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THREAT FROM FENTANYL FLOWING OVER OUR SOUTHERN BORDER
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HON. PAUL A. GOSAR
of arizona
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address a catastrophic mass death in our country because of our open borders--all due to fentanyl.
Fentanyl is freely flowing across our southern border as seizures increased by nearly 135 percent in 2021 under Joe Biden's laxed immigration enforcement.
In FY 2021, Customs and Border Protection seized 11,201 pounds of fentanyl, a historic rate that is more than all that was seized in 2018 and 2019 combined. This amounts to enough fentanyl to cause 2,540,341,996 deaths, or more than 7 times the U.S. population.
The free flow of this deadly drug across our border is a direct result of the Biden administration's open border policies. The fact is, Joe Biden continues to ignore and fails to address the record high overdose deaths caused from deadly fentanyl-related substances crossing our border.
As a result, the scourge of fentanyl is destroying our communities, killing our children and devastating our families.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. overdose deaths reached a devastating new height in 2021, claiming a new victim every five minutes.
There is a direct link between fentanyl-related overdose deaths and criminal drug cartels in Mexico. The ease in which the drug cartels operate is shocking. The cartels control the borders and are taking full advantage of Joe Biden's weak immigration policies.
Last December, in my home state of Arizona, the Scottsdale Police Department and the Arizona Attorney General's Office seized a record 1.7 million fentanyl pills and 10 kilograms of fentanyl powder.
During a recent two-month public safety surge, the DEA Phoenix Field Division announced total seizures of over three million fentanyl pills and 45 kilograms of fentanyl powder.
Just one fentanyl pill can kill. Yet our open borders remain a fentanyl pipeline.
Instead of securing our southern border to stop the flow of fentanyl, Mr. Biden has doubled down on his open-border policies that will only worsen the ongoing border crisis and destroy more communities and lives.
Just because Joe Biden ignores the fentanyl crisis doesn't mean Congress should. Congress must address the crisis at the border.
Congress must also take action and permanently place fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The emergency class-wide scheduling order for fentanyl-related substances is set to expire on February 18, 2022.
Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are wrong to allow this order to expire.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 25
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