The Sconi

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is among a growing throng of GOP lawmakers criticizing President Joe Biden’s open border policies as having deadly consequences.

"The cartels are exploiting Biden’s open border and poisoning our country with fentanyl,” Cruz recently tweeted.

According to CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, in 2021 there were in the neighborhood of a record-setting 107,622 drug overdose deaths across the country in the United States, according to provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. In addition, the number of deaths related to synthetic opioids (fentanyl) far outpaced that of any other drugs, with the number of fentanyl deaths jumping 23% from the year before (57,834) compared to 2021(71,238).

Of the 10,000 pounds of fentanyl seized in fiscal year 2021, the New York Post reports U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) highlights more than 90% of the load occurred at legal border entry points in California and Arizona, or places where roughly one-third of all migrants are entering the US daily.

“Border patrol agents are too busy dealing with the influx of migrants, and are not really focused on looking for fentanyl,” Texas-based security consultant and former deputy chief of the El Paso Police Department Robert Almonte told The Post.

“Border agents are not getting the support they need from the federal government to stop the flow of fentanyl, which is killing thousands of Americans.”

In Wisconsin, Spectrum News 1 reports the state saw 1,227 opioid-related deaths in 2020, the latest full year for which data is available. In 2021, authorities add fentanyl was directly involved in more than 75% of deaths, with West Central Wisconsin being considered by the federal government as a “high-intensity drug trafficking area” based on Eau Claire being located along Interstate 94, a major corridor through Wisconsin that also runs between Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, thus making it relatively easy to transport drugs longer distances in less time.

In addition to fentanyl being produced in pill form, the Post adds the opioid is now also being added to other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, all in an effort to increase their potency.

“We’re losing more people to fentanyl overdoes than guns, suicides and traffic accidents combined,” Almonte added. “This is a crisis. I get mad because I don’t think people get mad enough about what’s happening.”

As it is, government officials report the 20.4 million counterfeit pills seized by DEA agents last year represent enough fentanyl to provide a lethal dose to every American.

Back in April, the Biden administration moved to lift Title 42, a pandemic regulation that has been used to quickly expel migrants at the southern border. Border patrol agents have already warned if the regulation is lifted anytime soon a major surge in illegal migrant border crossings could be on the horizon.

Late last month U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction that bans the Biden administration from lifting Title 42, prompting DHS officials to go on record with their warning that as many as 18,000 migrants a day could soon be flooding the southern border if Title 42 is revoked.