A US citizen dies every 7-minutes from a fentanyl overdose. Republicans don’t care. They’d rather have “open borders” as talking point going into the 2024 election.
Since the days of Ronald Reagan, the hard right has had a love-hate relationship with immigration reform. They love to talk about it but hate the idea of doing anything to fix it.
Trump and far right Republicans talk about the “invasion” at our southern border.[1] But if this “invasion” is the greatest threat to our democracy, then why would Republicans scuttle bipartisan legislation to secure the border?
In 2007, Ted Kennedy and John McCain co-sponsored a major immigration bill that George W. Bush was ready to sign. The hard right killed it.
In 2013, thirty-two Republican senators joined Democrats in passing bipartisan immigration reform. The hard right killed it.
By sabotaging the most recent immigration bill, extremist Republicans have in fact put American lives at risk. But not how you think.
Republicans have shown that they really don’t care about preventing fentanyl deaths as long as they can talk about “open borders.”
Ninety percent of fentanyl entering the US is smuggled into the country is by U.S. citizens legally crossing the border, and not by asylum seekers.[4] Customs and Border Patrol reports that just 0.02% of people arrested for crossing the border possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.
Currently there are more than 100 cutting-edge inspection scanners sitting in warehouses because House and Senate Republicans have not authorized the funds to install them.[5]
The idled scanners would be used to scan vehicles and cargo at the border to detect fentanyl. But they only work if they are installed. Republicans don’t care.
How many times do swing voters need to see this movie before they understand the moral? Apparently, a lot of times. Democrats need to remind them.
[1] “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people…”
[3] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
[5] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/tester-asks-congress-support-funds-install-fentanyl-scanners-borde-rcna142381
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