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USE TRUMP POLICIES TO CONTROL BORDER CRISIS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Murphy) for 5 minutes.
Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to speak on the tragedy that is facing our Nation in the opioid epidemic.
As a physician for over 30 years, there is nothing more important to me than the health and safety of our communities. Unfortunately, it is no secret that communities across this great Nation are suffering from an opioid crisis that is sweeping the country once again.
As a member of the North Carolina General Assembly, I worked tirelessly on legislation to help curb the number of overdose deaths that were occurring in our State. After three decades of climbing statistics of young people dying from overdoses, we effected a change, and that number started to decrease. We did this by decreasing the number of prescribed opioids.
However, tragically enough, that number has started to rise again. That is because the illicit fentanyls have now taken over the death market.
Last year alone, more than 93,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, which demonstrates a 30 percent increase from 2019. Of the 93,000 drug-
related overdoses last year, 69 percent were opioid-related.
According to the CDC, last year, the tragic surge in these deaths is attributed largely to the illicit fentanyls. People know that, medically speaking, fentanyl is one of the most lethal substances on the planet. In fact, 2 milligrams can be considered a lethal dose.
Since Biden and Harris flung open our southern border, illicit drugs have poured into this country in record numbers. We no longer control our southern border; the Mexican drug cartels do. They love the fact the border has now been opened, and they have free rein to bring their death and destruction into this country.
Fentanyl has quickly become the drug of choice for these cartels. It is cheap, easy to manufacture, and highly profitable. Fentanyl is easy to smuggle in small amounts, and it is easier for drug mules to bring it across our porous southern border.
Its toxicity means that those purchasing this deadly opioid need only a small amount to cause death or serious harm.
There is a strong correlation between border crossings and high drug encounters, with no help coming from the White House.
Last month, Customs and Border Protection seized a record 1,060 pounds of fentanyl. That represents a higher total than the last three Junes combined. That 1-month seizure alone was enough drugs to kill 240 million people.
Think about it. Those are only the drugs that we catch. It is obvious from what is happening on the American streets that much more gets across the southern border.
The Biden-Harris administration denies this is a crisis. How can they do this to the American people? How do they not understand that this recklessness is leading to death and destruction in their own country.
At the same time, the Border Patrol encountered 188,000 illegal immigrants, so the hypocrisy continues. Thousands of people are coming into our country illegally, either not vaccinated or COVID-positive. Is anyone checking their status? But know if you come from Canada or another country, you have to prove you have been vaccinated--hypocrisy at the highest level coming from the White House, further death and destruction coming from the Biden-Harris administration.
President Biden knows he has botched our border security. Vice President Harris only got shamed into going to the border when former President Trump was going. She finally did go to a sterile area for a good photo shoot and not to the real area of crisis. They decided that no action is better than acknowledging their role in creating this public health, humanitarian, and national security crisis.
I am sorry, Mr. President and Mrs. Vice President, this is totally unacceptable. You are causing irreparable harm to this Nation.
In 2021, every community in this country is a border community. Making our Nation safer starts at our borders, and we have a responsibility to ensure that we are doing everything we can to preserve our rule of law.
Mr. Speaker, I implore this administration to reinstate President Trump's effective and commonsense border policies to get the Biden border crisis under control.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 131
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