Border Patrol agents are unable to stop the flow of fentanyl coming across the U.S. border because they are too busy processing large groups of illegal immigrants, the leader of the National Border Patrol Council said.
“If we seize even 5 percent of what’s coming across the border, we’re lucky,” Brandon Judd testified at an unofficial House hearing at FreedomWorks in Washington on Feb. 1. “And if there’s nobody there to detect you and apprehend you, the cartels are going to push it through between the ports of entry when they know that there is absolutely no chance that we’re going to apprehend that narcotic.”
More than 100,000 Americans, a record amount, died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, according to CDC data. Fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, highly addictive, and deadly. Buyers may be unaware that the drugs they buy are laced with illicit fentanyl.
Judd noted that, in one Arizona area, only four agents are available to patrol a 150-mile section of the border.
“That 150 miles of border normally takes about 75 to 90 agents,” Judd said, adding that “cartels control the border right now. They dictate to us what our operations are going to be. That should never happen.”
At the ports of entry, where most drugs are seized, agents have nabbed 2,390 pounds of fentanyl so far in fiscal 2022, compared to 10,183 pounds in the same period the previous year.
Cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine seizures are also significantly reduced this fiscal year compared to the same period in fiscal 2021.
In mid-December 2021, law enforcement authorities seized 1.7 million fentanyl pills in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“There have been no new operations, policies, or programs put in place since this administration has taken office to help the border Border Patrol go after criminal cartels and the profits that they are generating,” Judd said. “We have allowed the criminal cartels to create billions of dollars in revenue at the expense of U.S. citizens who are dying at a record rate in 2021.”
Judd said Border Patrol agent morale is “in the tank” and more agents have left the agency in the past year than were hired.
“We go home every single day defeated. We feel like our time is wasted. Our only goal is to protect the citizens of this great nation — we are not allowed to do that at this time,” he said.
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