Border Security

Floor Speech

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MR. GUEST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

As a former district attorney, I have seen firsthand how damaging narcotics and synthetic drugs can be to individuals, families, and our communities.

In 2017, drug overdoses killed 72,000 Americans, more than car crashes and gun violence combined. The most dangerous of these drugs, fentanyl, is 50 times more potent than heroin and accounted for almost twice the number of fatal overdoses in 2017.

Last year, law enforcement officers in Mississippi seized more than 800,000 dosage units of fentanyl. The fentanyl seized was enough to kill nearly 14 percent of the population of Mississippi.

This lethal narcotic is smuggled into our country by transnational criminal organizations or drug cartels. Just last month, Federal law enforcement officials seized more than 250 pounds of fentanyl at the Nogales port of entry on the United States-Mexico border.

As we continue to aggressively police our points of entry, drug cartels will attempt to gain access through the areas of the border that are not secured, forcing us to devote manpower to police these unsecured sections of our border.

It is apparent that drug cartels want to profit from the addiction and the destruction that these drugs have on American lives. This Congress has not only the opportunity but also the duty to act, to help limit the flow of drugs into the country and to protect our citizens by securing our southwest border.

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