Lawmakers argue Biden administration's border policies to blame for fentanyl crisis

WASHINGTON (TND) — Fentanyl is now responsible for the deaths of tens of thousandsof Americans each year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States during the 12-month period between April 2020 and April 2021. Of those, the National Institutes of Healthreported that more than 70,000 deaths were attributed to synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas now saysthe record number of Americans overdosing from fentanyl is "the single greatest challenge" the U.S. faces. Mayorkas made the statement during a Senate hearing last week and many noted that it was the first time a member of Biden’s cabinet has described fentanyl in this way.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills are often disguised as Oxycontin, Percocet and Xanax, amplifying the danger of the powerful drug.

In 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration confiscated 50 million pillsand more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. Officials say Mexico is the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the U.S.and attribute the surge to a shift toward synthetic drugs — which are easier and quicker to produce — in cartel business models.

"The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel and their affiliates control the vast majority of the fentanyl global supply chain, from manufacture to distribution," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in written remarks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "It costs the cartels as little as 10 cents to produce a fentanyl-laced fake prescription pill that is sold in the United States for $10 to $30 per pill."

Lora Ries, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, says the Biden administration has not been honest about the full scope of the fentanyl issue and that DHS, under the leadership of Mayorkas, is to blame.

“He is grossly under describing the problem," said Ries. "Getting the Secretary of Homeland Security to answer hearing questions is a challenge. Killing 100,000 Americans is a crisis: it's reasonable to call it a public health emergency, but he's downplaying it because it involves the very open border and the policies that he's overseeing and the terrible results from that."

Mayorkas says the Department of Homeland Security is attacking the cartels and smugglers like never before, citing the arrest of more than 9,100 smugglers and the disruption of over 9,000 human smuggling operations last year. He says the efforts have led to the seizure of record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry.

But conservatives say it’s not enough and the country needs tougher immigration laws to secure the border and stop the flow of drugs.

"You should be fired but you haven’t been fired," Sen. John Cornyn. R-Texas, told Mayorkas during last week's hearing.

All of this is happening on Capitol Hill as the Food and Drug Administration just approved the first over-the-counter Narcan nasal spray. The medication rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose and many are hoping this will help save lives.