Migrant Surge Degrades Border Patrol’s Ability to Stop Smugglers
By Andrew R. Arthur on May 24, 2021
Almost all of the focus during the current ongoing border crisis has been the large number of migrants — and in particular unaccompanied children and adults travelling with children in “family units” — Border Patrol has apprehended in the last two months, and their care. Lost has been the fact that seizures of fentanyl — a truly deadly drug — are up, suggesting there is an even larger crisis at the border.
In the first seven months of the fiscal year, Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border seized 2,435 pounds of cocaine, 7,197 pounds of methamphetamine, 654 pounds of fentanyl, and 266 pounds of heroin.
Projecting those numbers forward on an annual basis, Border Patrol is on track to seize 4,174 pounds of cocaine, 12,337 pounds of meth, 1,121 pounds of fentanyl, and 456 pounds of heroin at the Southwest border.
In FY 2020, by contrast, Border Patrol apprehended 4,194 pounds of cocaine, 20,317 pounds of meth, 786 pounds of fentanyl, and 538 pounds of heroin. That means that Border Patrol is slated to seize slightly less cocaine and heroin, less meth, but a whole lot more fentanyl this fiscal year than last.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Migrant-Surge-Degrades-Border-Patrols-Ability-Stop-Smugglers
