Last year, drug overdoses climbed in tandem with a major increase in illegal immigration, raising concerns about how increasing border traffic may be contributing to more drug deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently revealed data showing a dramatic increase in drug overdoses last year, with a total of 107,000 deaths. Similarly, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported an increase in illegal immigration in 2021. The agency stated that “In FY 2021, CBP recorded a total of 1.72 million enforcement encounters, including 146,054 encounters of unaccompanied children, 478,492 encounters of individuals in family units, and 1,098,500 encounters of single adults.”
According to The Center Square, Border patrol agents apprehended 221,303 illegal aliens in March of this year and have continued to capture substantial quantities of illicit substances. In the first three months of this year, Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations intercepted 62 tons of illicit substances. Seizures of some narcotics, such as fentanyl-laced tablets, have increased dramatically in the United States. Users are typically unaware that these tablets contain fentanyl or how much fentanyl they contain, leading to an increase in overdoses.
With border patrol officials dealing with an influx of migrants, experts believe even more narcotics may slip through the cracks. Experts claim cartels deliberately crowd border patrol officials in particular places to create a weak spot where they can then send narcotics across the border.
Preston Huennekens of the Federation for American Immigration Reform said, “There is absolutely a connection between drug trafficking and the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border,” adding that “There is no question that these phenomena are connected and deeply intertwined. The cartels control both drug flows and the flow of people – it’s that simple.” Former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan explained that “The growing absence of Border Patrol agents has allowed these groups to flood our country with untold amounts of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics, which inevitably make their way into our communities, devastating hundreds of thousands of lives.”
