During the recent House Committee on Homeland Security hearing, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), a member of the Committee, brought up two major issues surrounding the southern border: fentanyl and child sex trafficking. Bishop posted on Twitter on July 19 saying that these issues are the results of the Biden Administration’s border policies.
“Fentanyl deaths are unfortunately happening everywhere, including in North Carolina. Open borders kill,” Bishop wrote in a July 19 Twitter post. “Illicit drugs, child sex trafficking, cartel violence - all results of the Biden-Mayorkas border invasion.”
In his Twitter post, Bishop attached a video of himself speaking at the hearing on the ongoing fentanyl crisis and said that “it’s happening everywhere, not just at the border, everywhere across this country.”
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection website, the amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border has continued to increase over the past few years. From FY 2020-2022, the total number of pounds of fentanyl seized at the southern border rose from 5,300 in FY2020 to 10,600 in FY2021 and eventually to 14,100 in FY2022. Already in FY2023 there has been over 21,000 pounds of fentanyl seized at the southern border. Of the 22,000 pounds that have been seized throughout all USCBP regions, 21,800 have been seized at the southern border.
In a press release from last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott classified the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations due to the escalating fentanyl crisis. He said, “Fentanyl is a clandestine killer,” and called for more action to be taken to remove fentanyl from communities. “Cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way. In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in the past year than all terrorist attacks across the globe in the past 100 years,” he said.
During the hearing, Bishop also brought up the issue of child sex trafficking at the border saying, “The problem of child sex trafficking is, I understand, at epidemic levels as well.”
According to the Heritage Foundation, last year, 150,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) entered the US, and there have been around 12,000 UACs entering monthly in 2023. The article reported that approximately 60% of UACs are caught and used by the cartels for child pornography or drug trafficking. The article said that the current border policies and standards have resulted in more children falling into the hands of cartels and others, and have seen many children sent to “family members” who the children have never seen before.
The Heritage Foundation notes that the Trump administration authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct DNA tests at the border on groups of immigrants and children who were "familial units” in order to combat child trafficking. More than 6,000 cases of fraudulent families resulted due to this initiative. However, the article reported that President Biden chose to terminate this program.
