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Biden's refusal to secure the border is killing people

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  gregtx  •  2 years ago  •  14 comments

By:   Austin Knudsen (Restoring America)

Biden's refusal to secure the border is killing people
Our nation has reached a grim milestone: For the first time ever, more than 100,000 Americans were killed by drug overdoses in a single year (2021). That number is nearly triple the annual number of fatal car crashes in the United States. And when you think the news can't get worse — it does. Alarmingly, nearly two-thirds of the drug-related deaths are estimated to be fentanyl-related.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



June 13, 2022 01:16 PM By Austin Knudsen

Our nation has reached a grim milestone: For the first time ever, more than 100,000 Americans were killed by drug overdoses in a single year (2021). That number is nearly triple the annual number of fatal car crashes in the United States. And when you think the news can't get worse — it does. Alarmingly, nearly two-thirds of the drug-related deaths are estimated to be fentanyl-related.

As the attorney general and top law enforcement official in Montana, I'm seeing the fentanyl problem close up, and it is only getting worse.

Our Montana Highway Patrol troopers have already gotten three times as many fentanyl pills off the road this year as they did in all of 2021. At the same time, our state crime lab has seen fentanyl-related overdose deaths increase more than 1,100% since 2017 and is on pace to see another increase again this year. In a single week, one Native American reservation suffered 17 overdoses and four deaths from fentanyl.

Meanwhile, teenage drug overdose deaths rose by 20% last year after nearly doubling from 2019 to 2020. Again, fentanyl is the main culprit in these deaths. More overdoses and more deaths cause heartbreak for families and havoc in our communities, while law enforcement scrambles to keep up.

The director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta, sees it, too, saying, "This is a very historic time. We have never had this amount of death and destruction that we're seeing now."

The question begs to be answered: Why isn't President Joe Biden doing more to stop the death and destruction acknowledged by his own administration? We know cartels manufacture illicit fentanyl on an industrial scale in Mexico and smuggle it across the border into U.S. communities.

Instead, the Biden administration is forcing border stations to function as glorified Ellis Island welcome centers, allowing fentanyl to flow nearly unfettered into our nation. Customs and Border Protection agents arrest and process thousands of illegal immigrants every day, only to see them released into the interior of our nation. This exercise in futility taxes time and resources while detracting from CBP's drug interdiction mission.

Unsurprisingly, the Biden administration has also pushed ahead with policies that are exacerbating the worst border crisis in decades, if not ever. Shortly after he took office, he instituted a new policy instructing the Department of Homeland Security to ignore federal immigration law on required deportations for certain illegal immigrants with criminal records, potentially including drug dealing offenses.

Then, the administration announced it would lift the Title 42 public health policy that allows border officials to turn away migrants to prevent the spread of communicable diseases like COVID-19. The revocation would result in thousands more migrants per day showing up at the border, further overwhelming CBP agents while making it easier for cartels to smuggle drugs into our communities. It's such a disastrous and irresponsible decision that even liberal Democrats such as Beto O'Rourke and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) have opposed it. Thankfully, a federal judge stepped in to prevent the administration from lifting the policy — for now.

Montana is fighting back because, like every state in the nation, the border crisis is harming our people and communities. Over 70,000 people in the U.S. have died because of fentanyl. Along with other Republican attorneys general, I've sued the Biden administration to stop these and other dangerous policies before they cause more damage to our nation.

The fentanyl and violent crime epidemics will continue to grow until President Biden stops his reckless pandering to the far Left and gets serious about securing the border. And Republican attorneys general will keep fighting him in court until he does.

Austin Knudsen is the attorney general of Montana.


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GregTx
PhD Guide
1  seeder  GregTx    2 years ago
The question begs to be answered: Why isn't President Joe Biden doing more to stop the death and destruction acknowledged by his own administration?
 
 
 
Texan1211
Professor Principal
1.1  Texan1211  replied to  GregTx @1    2 years ago
The question begs to be answered: Why isn't President Joe Biden doing more to stop the death and destruction acknowledged by his own administration?

Maybe the right people aren't the victims?

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
1.1.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Texan1211 @1.1    2 years ago
Maybe the right people aren't the victims?

The people on the right certainly think they're always the victims.

So here's some facts, in 2020 under Trump there were 93,000 fentanyl related deaths.

As noted " teenage drug overdose deaths rose by 20% last year after nearly doubling from 2019 to 2020 ". So last year, 2021, the rise in teenage drug overdoses was nearly 80% less than it was the previous year under the Trump administration. But here are the whacko conservatives trying to blame anything and everything on Biden.

"In   September this year (2021),   the DEA said Thursday it made 810 arrests and seized more than 1.8 million fake pills during a two-month sweep to stem the flow of counterfeit medications containing fentanyl.

During the sweep, the DEA also seized enough powder to make tens of millions of pills, more than 4,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, and more than 650 kilograms of cocaine.

But let's not focus on what's being done, let's whine about why more isn't being done because the 'right people' have to find something to whine about when their party isn't in power. I don't recall hearing all these supposedly "concerned citizens" complaining about the Trump administration and the tens of thousands of fentanyl deaths that happened on his watch.

" fentanyl-related overdose deaths increase more than 1,100% since 2017"

So 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 all under the Trump administration with massive increases in fentanyl-related overdose deaths but not a peep from the right, but now that Biden's in office the Trump sycophants are suddenly so concerned asking why Biden isn't doing more. Hypocrites.

 
 
 
GregTx
PhD Guide
1.1.2  seeder  GregTx  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @1.1.1    2 years ago

  • 6.5 million prescriptions for fentanyls were written in 2015.
  • 4 million prescriptions were sold in 2018, decreasing by 40% over three years.
 
 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
1.1.4  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  GregTx @1.1.2    2 years ago

What do legal prescriptions dropping from 2015 to 2018 have to do with the massive increase in fentanyl deaths, most of which were from illegal/illicit drug use, during the same period? That doesn't refute the facts I listed in any way.

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
1.1.5  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.1.3    2 years ago
Delaware is Trump Country

Okay, is that why the overdose deaths have skyrocketed there over the last 5 years?

Trump effects linger

I guess so. Even though it's not the nearly 100% increase in teenage drug overdose deaths as there were under the Trump administration from 2019 to 2020, the 'lingering' 20% increase in 2021 is still a heartbreaking number, especially for those of us who are parents of young children and teens.

 
 
 
GregTx
PhD Guide
1.1.6  seeder  GregTx  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @1.1.4    2 years ago

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Junior Expert
1.1.7  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @1.1.5    2 years ago
Okay, is that why the overdose deaths have skyrocketed there over the last 5 years?

Fentanyl overdoses started in significant numbers in 2011.  From 2012 through 2018, the number of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioid increased dramatically each year. Trump ran an unofficial campaign in 2012 - so there you go!

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
1.1.8  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.1.7    2 years ago
Fentanyl overdoses started in significant numbers in 2011.  From 2012 through 2018

Ah, so that's why right wing conservative liars and whiners are blaming Biden for something that's been going on for over a decade! It makes perfect sense now. Conservatives couldn't give less of a fuck about drug overdoses until a Democrat is in power so they can blame all their woes, problems and complaints on them while rejecting any sort of personal responsibility.

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
2  Sean Treacy    2 years ago

Yep.  Preventable deaths that Democrats refuse to take action on.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3  Vic Eldred    2 years ago

It's hitting some people hard:

"Littledog was among four people to die from fentanyl overdoses on the reservation that week in March, according to Blackfeet health officials. An additional 13 people who live on the reservation survived overdoses, making a startling total for an Indigenous population of about 10,000 people."

 
 

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