The following paragraph was in a Jan. 8 letter from Rep. Bob Latta to the editor of the BG Independent Media. “In the month of December, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported apprehending a record shattering 302,000 illegal migrants crossing the southern border. And over the last year, CBP seized over 23,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl” (http://tinyurl.com/26s763j7).
Rep. Latta is correct that more than 23,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl came into the U.S. in 2023, but the juxtaposition of this information with the number of migrants illegally crossing the southern border is inaccurate, misleading, and dangerous. According to a report from the National Immigration Forum (http://tinyurl.com/3y6uks4d), a whopping 90% of the illicit fentanyl came over the U.S. border at legal ports of entry (POEs) between Mexico and the U.S., not, as the letter implies, in the areas between ports of entry. Furthermore, according to a report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 88% of the fentanyl traffickers in 2022 were U.S. citizens (http://tinyurl.com/29h9b2nc).
While fentanyl trafficking is clearly a serious problem in the U.S., the blame should be re-directed from migrants to the U.S. citizens who are bringing it in at legal POEs.
Janet Parks
Bowling Green
