WASHINGTON D.C. – Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) recently published an op-ed in the Herald-Dispatch titled, "Biden's Open Border Worsens West Virginia's Drug Crisis."
Congresswoman Miller recently traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to see firsthand how President Biden's open border policies have paved the way for unprecedented national security, humanitarian, and public health crises. In the piece, she discusses how the consequences of these crises are felt not only in America's border states, but in West Virginia.
Carol D. Miller: Biden's Open Border Worsens West Virginia's Drug Crisis
March 13, 2022
President Joe Biden's open-border agenda has resulted in unprecedented national security, humanitarian, and public health crises. Since he took office, over 2 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the southern border. I recently traveled to Del Rio, Texas to see firsthand from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
What I witnessed was heartbreaking. Border Patrol agents are overworked and understaffed. Families and children are sitting in detention facilities waiting to be processed. Human smugglers and drug cartels are running rampant, bringing criminals and deadly drugs across the southern border and into our communities and across the nation.
West Virginia has long struggled with the devastating effects of the opioid epidemic. After years of positive progress, the crisis has exploded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented lockdowns. The prolonged isolation caused many to turn to drugs. Drug overdoses claimed more American lives last year than ever before. It's projected that overdoses in West Virginia jumped 62 percent last year, and more than 1,600 people died of an overdose.
This epidemic has become deadlier as people turn to potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Fentanyl and fentanyl related substances are fueling overdoses. More than 64,000 Americans have passed away between May 2020 and April 2021 from the drug and make up 64 percent of total U.S. overdose deaths. This highly lethal synthetic opioid is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.
The majority of America's fentanyl is being smuggled across the southern border from Mexico. In Fiscal Year 2021, 11,201 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border, an increase of 134 percent from the previous period. That is enough fentanyl to kill every American seven times over.
My trip to the southern border made it clear that the consequences of Biden's border crisis reach far beyond Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. President Biden may be able to ignore the ripple effects of his border crisis, but West Virginians cannot.
I often think of Kermit, a town of less than 400, where 12 million hydrocodone tablets flooded the town at the height of the opioid epidemic. That's 30,000 pills per man, woman, and child. We all know people who have been personally touched by addiction – whether they're the person in line next to you at the grocery store, sitting next to you in the pew at church, your neighbors or your friends. We have all felt the tragic consequences of this disease.
President Biden MUST secure America's border with Mexico to stop the flow of drugs, before any more lives are lost.
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Original source can be found here.
