When political leaders say the U.S.A.-Mexico border should be secured, they often point to increasing fentanyl overdose fatalities among Americans as justification. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) impounded 2,800 pounds of the drug in 2019, 11,200 pounds in 2021, and 12,900 last year.

It is also important to note that 2,200 of these pounds came from illegal immigrants as they were being apprehended. Here are some of the sources in the U.S. where many of these issues occur.

  • Interior checkpoints
  • Screening of passenger vehicles
  • Screening of commercial vehicles

CBP says Mexican drug cartels smuggle illicit drugs into the U.S. in passenger vehicles and on tractor-trailers.

To address the drug crisis, President Biden wants to have more drug detection machines, rigorously inspect cargo to stop pills and powder coming through the border, and impose heavy penalties on traffickers.