Border registers new fentanyl and terrorist entry records

Fentanyl seizures at the border set a new record for the 2022 fiscal year (October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022). Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized 14,700 pounds of fentanyl (14,100 pounds at the southwest border alone).

Although fentanyl seizures decreased 19% from August to September, the total amount of this lethal drug intercepted by federal authorities in FY 2022 exceeded the amounts for 2019, 2020, and 2021 (2,800 pounds; 4,800 pounds; and 11,200 pounds, respectively).

Fentanyl entry is one of the main arguments used by Republican lawmakers to denounce that the southern border is not secure. Several attorney generals have asked the Biden administration to declare this drug a "weapon of mass destruction." It is a strong synthetic drug and can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and its kills hundreds of Americans every day.

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report identified China as the main source of fentanyl trafficked into the United States. Together with Mexico (and gradually India), they are the main source countries for this potent drug.

Entry of terrorists through the border

On the other hand, nearly 100 individuals on the FBI's terrorist watch list were arrested while attempting to enter from Mexico during the fiscal year, setting a new record for insecurity at the border.

The Border Patrol notes that 98 of the more than 2.2 million people apprehended while attempting to illegally cross the southern border in FY 2022 were suspected terrorists or closely affiliated with terrorist organizations.

The Terrorist Screening Dataset is the federal database that lists individuals who may be involved with terrorist groups. The State Department lists two Colombian groups as foreign terrorist organizations: the Segunda Maquetalia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP).

Arrests on the anti-terror watch list skyrocketed in the last six months. As of March 30, halfway through FY2022, only 27 individuals on the watch list had been apprehended at the border. Of the 27 arrests, 25 were citizens of Colombia. The increase in the number of terrorism-related apprehensions at the border coincides with a demographic shift in the nationalities of immigrants attempting to enter the country, with an increase in citizens from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

"Our adversaries know they can enter our country through our failed border," said Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, last Monday.