The number of border crossings in the Southwest in 2022 alone has already surpassed any previous year on record with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). | Adobe Stock
The number of border crossings in the Southwest in 2022 alone has already surpassed any previous year on record with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). | Adobe Stock
The number of border crossings in the Southwest in 2022 alone has already surpassed any previous year on record with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). With just under two months left to go in the year, well over 1.8 million border encounters have been reported this year by the Southwest Border Patrol, and monthly encounter numbers have increased since the summer.
As midterm elections approach, for many voters those numbers are inextricably tied to the fentanyl crisis plaguing their homes. In Georgia in particular, the opioid epidemic is taking shape as one of the key issues to be decided during midterms.
This comes as the recorded number of 2022 border crossings in the Southwest has reached 1,860,009–the highest single-year number yet recorded by CBP, and 2022 isn’t even over.
"In total, there were 227,547 encounters along the southwest land border in September, a 12 percent increase compared to August. Of those, 19 percent involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months," a CBP operational report reads.
In 2021, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) voted against a Republican-backed bill that would have appropriated $300 million to CBP to better engage the fight against trafficked opioids.
According to data released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in Georgia alone, over 2400 overdose deaths were reported from March 2021 to March 2022.
While declassified DEA intelligence reports state the New Generation Jalisco and the Sinaloa cartels are the primary traffickers of fentanyl into the United States, these cartels dominate trafficking corridors at the southern border leading into Arizona and California.
Marc Theissen, a columnist for the Washington Post, argues that the border crisis is caused by President Biden’s law policies.
“As the migrant crisis has grown over the past year, fentanyl seizures rose 56 percent in March 2022 compared with March 2021. And this surge in illegal drugs has contributed to the crime surge in U.S. cities,” he writes.
12,000 rainbow fentanyl pills were seized at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year.
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