President Joe Biden and “Border Czar” Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t care less about the southern U.S. border.
But the crisis at the border has exploded as a federal court has ruled that a statute deployed by former President Donald Trump — Title 42, which gives the government the power to shut down the border as an emergency action to keep communicable diseases out of the country — can’t be used anymore.
It’s all about to get worse, but let’s pause to consider just how bad it already is at the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported this week that agents intercepted 379 million potentially deadly fentanyl doses — enough to kill every American and then some. A fatal dose of the drug — a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin — is just two milligrams.
Most of the fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. comes from Mexico, the DEA says, and most of it was produced at secret factories in Mexico by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels. Both use chemicals sourced in China, the DEA said.
“DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels – the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels – that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.
The agency seized more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl, along with more than 50 million fentanyl pills, many that were made to look like legal prescription painkillers. The haul is more than double what the DEA seized in 2021.
And that’s just what the DEA was able to catch. Think about how much more fentanyl made it across the border and into the hands of Americans. In 2021, more than 100,000 died of drug overdoses — two-thirds of which were attributed to fentanyl.
It’s all going to get worse if Title 42 is lifted. President Donald Trump used Title 42 in 2020 as the COVID pandemic broke out worldwide. And in a wise move, President Joe Biden kept the rule in place. Since it was enacted, more than two million people have been expelled.
But families seeking U.S. asylum filed a lawsuit and a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to lift Title 42 by December 21 — although it has been stayed until after Christmas. When it is lifted, the floodgates will open: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials told U.S. lawmakers last Wednesday that some 50,000 foreigners are waiting to cross into the U.S.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday warned of the coming mayhem.
“If the courts don’t intervene and put a halt of removal to the Title 42 it’s going to be total chaos,” the Republican governor said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Some do come across with COVID and no one knows exactly who comes across with COVID. These people are not tested when they come across the border and so who knows how many people have COVID, who knows what other type of disease they may have. The answer is nobody knows because nobody is testing them,” the governor said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.