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SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — The U.S.-Mexico border is so far from Utah that Congressman John Curtis posed a question to Art Del Cueto, leader of the National Border Patrol Council.
“Can you help the people of Utah understand why this affects them and how it will affect them?” Curtis said Thursday during a field hearing on the border situation in Sierra Vista, Ariz. So I asked:
“Because drug cartels aren't just operating here. They're not just making money off of what they're selling on the southern border and in the border areas. They're making money off of what they're selling across the country. ” Utah responded to Del Cueto, who testified at the hearing. Del Cueto is the leader of the National Border Patrol Council, the labor organization representing Border Patrol agents.
In fact, Curtis later said in a phone interview that his biggest takeaway from the trip was that the U.S. government doesn't control the southern border, allowing fentanyl and other drugs into the country. . Republicans, including Mr. Curtis, have criticized the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
“I came today with a specific purpose: to learn about border control. And what I learned is that the border is not controlled by the U.S. government, but by the (drug) cartels. They control who comes, they control when they come to the United States and where they come from,'' said Curtis, who represents Utah's 3rd District.
As U.S. lawmakers struggle to find a solution to the growing problem of inadequate security and a surge in people attempting to enter the United States illegally from Mexico, Curtis traveled to the border to see the situation first-hand. He visited with 12 other Republican U.S. House members, making it his third trip to the border.
Curtis said the impact of drugs crossing the border is probably the biggest problem facing Utah due to lack of security. “We've seen it in Utah, too. The (Utah) Highway Patrol has released alarming statistics about fentanyl and the increase in fentanyl-related deaths,” he said.
Statistics released last week by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration highlight the fentanyl problem. According to the data, about 3.4 million fentanyl pills were seized in Utah, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming last year, including 664,200 in Utah, 1.9 million in the four states in 2022, and 1.9 million in 2021. This was an increase from 565,200 tablets in 2017. Most of the fentanyl comes from two Mexican drug groups, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel, and fentanyl is now the “leading cause of death for Americans” between the ages of 18 and 45, according to a DEA report. There is.
“Criminal cartels, organized transnational organizations, are coming into our country one pill at a time and destroying our country,” Mark Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, said at a field hearing Thursday. said he and another witness.
The hearing leader, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), said fentanyl kills 70,000 people a year in the United States.
“It's not hard to see how so much fentanyl is flowing into our country when our border crossings are empty and busy with other things,” he said. He charged that under the Biden administration, “the situation has gotten completely out of control.”
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican-developed plan to strengthen border security. Curtis said that even though the problem is serious, it could be difficult to plan to deal with it in the future.
“That's a tough question,” he said, pondering the prospects for a bill that could garner enough support from Democrats and Republicans to pass. “I'm an optimistic person. I think it's fair to say the odds are pretty good, but that doesn't stop me from trying.”
He believes HR2, the border security measure approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last May, could be a starting point. The bill, which is still being considered in the U.S. Senate, would impose limits on asylum eligibility and call for new efforts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. More generally, Curtis has called for a return to the “Remain in Mexico” policy implemented under former President Donald Trump, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their claims were processed. There is.
“I suspect that many Republicans in the Senate want HR2,” Curtis said. “This is the only body that passed through it, so it's a great starting point.”
Gov. Spencer Cox visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas last Sunday with 13 other Republican governors and lamented the state of border security. Representatives Celeste Malloy and Burgess Owens, who represent Utah's 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts, respectively, visited the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on January 3.
