Tag Archive for: OpenArizonaBorder

Half Of All Fentanyl Seized In U.S. Is Caught In Arizona

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Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell warns about the importance of drug-related education of youth in her National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day statement Monday.

Mitchell cited the 2022 Arizona Youth Survey, in which 47% of eighth graders said they do not know of the deadly drug, according to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.

“This is something that we can’t afford to have them not know about because what we’re finding is that fentanyl is laced in all different sorts of street drugs,” she said. “We have seen overdoses in young people double since 2019.”

According to county data from 2020 and 2021, synthetic opioids were related to 91% of overdose deaths of people between 15-24 years old. In addition, the county states that the synthetic opioid death rate has skyrocketed by 6,000% between 2012 and 2021.

She encouraged parents to talk with their children about the substance and said that “It’s not a drug. It’s a poison.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that over 150 people die each day in the United States due to synthetic opioid overdoses, which include fentanyl. The agency says that it is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Its legal usage is typically for prescribed pain relief medication. In Arizona, that estimate is over five people daily, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

As Arizona is a border state, it’s become a hub for fentanyl trafficking, as the substance is regularly seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in large quantities. The Drug Enforcement Administration said that over half of fentanyl is stemming from the Arizona-Mexico border, NewsNation reported earlier in August. Some of those seizures are larger than others, as The Center Square reported that nearly a ton of fentanyl was seized by authorities at the Arizona border between March and May through “Operation Blue Lotus” and “Operation Four Horseman.”

Of all of the fentanyl seized across the nation, half of it is seized in Arizona because we are a border state,” Mitchell said.

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This article was published by Center Square and is reproduced with permission.

It’s Kyrsten Sinema’s Turn To Tour The Border With Speaker McCarthy

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TUCSON, Ariz. — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., wasn’t with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week when he toured the border in her own backyard. But next time, she should be.

On Thursday, the newly elected House speaker traveled with four GOP freshmen to get a firsthand look at the crisis along the southern border in Arizona. McCarthy shared in an exclusive interview with The Federalist that the Arizona senator wasn’t invited on this trip, but she’s more than welcome on the next.

“I didn’t invite any senators,” McCarthy said of his first border tour since taking his new post. When asked whether he would ever bring her, McCarthy said “gladly.”

“I’d invite her,” the speaker nodded.

A bicameral border tour with the Republican House speaker could be a political goldmine for Sinema, who is up for re-election in 2024. A Democrat senator who’s framed herself as a moderate in an upper chamber that’s dominated by far-left interests, Sinema could not only help her chances for another six-year term but also help get something done — if she actually cared about the border.

In December, Sinema publicly rebuked her own party and declared herself an independent for the remaining two years of her first term. Functionally, the announcement changed nothing on Capitol Hill. The Arizona lawmaker still caucuses with Democrats, who enjoy an expanded majority in the Senate after the November midterms. Politically, however, the move empowers Sinema to buck her own party more often in a conference where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer still maintains his leadership status by a single vote.

Sinema knows she has a tough road to re-election next year, and she knows the state’s border with Mexico, neglected by D.C. Democrats, will be a liability. The issue even forced Sen. Mark Kelly, another Arizona Democrat, to condemn the Biden administration during a fall debate after his opponent, Republican Blake Masters, demanded that Kelly resign.

“When the president decided he was going to do something dumb on this, and change the rules,” Kelly said, “I told him he was wrong.”

A border trip with McCarthy, for which Sinema now has an open invitation, could foil potential attacks from a Republican opponent next year while harassing members in her own conference to get something passed. McCarthy also knows he’ll need an ally across the aisle to get border legislation through a divided government. The two were spotted dining together in early February.

Sinema already led a bipartisan delegation to the border at El Paso, Texas, on a multi-day, eight-member trip in January. The tour was far different from the sanitized version President Joe Biden experienced the same week.

On the Sunday following her announcement to leave the Democratic Party, Sinema blasted the federal response to the border crisis as a failure.

“The federal government has failed here. Places like Arizona, front lines of this crisis, have been paying the price every single day since then,” Sinema said on CNN, adding that she’s “frustrated with partisanship that has gripped our nation.”

A divided government over the next two years presents the Arizona lawmaker with a prime opportunity to turn a politician’s tough talk into action, starting with a border trip with McCarthy. Action on the border might also save her Senate seat.

Wyatt Forster and Carey Appolonia aren’t exactly the kind of constituents Sinema might expect to count on come election time. Six months ago, the married pair opened the “Trump Store” gift shop off highway 80 between the border and Tucson.

Both disdain President Biden, hope Trump wins again, and demand the border be secured. They’ve watched high-speed chases become routine and even had their Tucson home become the target of an attempted break-in, leading them to keep their firearms on them at all times.

“We are in a full-blown crisis,” Appolonia said, seated in a store where customers can buy toilet paper with Obama’s face and a toilet brush with Biden’s head.

But when it came to Sinema, their tone softened.

“I have a little bit of respect for her,” Appolonia told The Federalist. “Some people probably wouldn’t like me for saying that.”

“She’s bucked the Democrats. I’m pretty proud of her, honestly,” Forster added. A border trip with McCarthy “couldn’t hurt.”

In his interview with The Federalist on Thursday, McCarthy listed no shortage of legislative proposals that are in the mix after his tour with border agents, from hiring reform to appropriations funding. But he says he still has more listening to do.

“We’re going to bring the committees down here, listen to people, and then move legislation through the House,” McCarthy said.

A Republican House, however, remains just one-third of the equation.

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This article was published by The Federalist and is reproduced with permission.

‘Ground Zero’ Arizona Republicans Sounding Alarm Over Fentanyl Flowing From Border

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Arizona Republican state legislators doubled down on their call to action on the border crisis, particularly on fentanyl, at a news conference on Thursday.

The legislators said that the rise in fentanyl deaths in the state is deeply concerning and called for more resources to support law enforcement and greater education on prevention techniques like the use of naloxone for accidental overdose deaths.

“We need to take swift action to deal with what is happening to combat it,” Rep. Steve Montenegro, who is the Chairman of the House Health & Human Services Committee, said.

Opioid overdoses, which commonly stem from fentanyl, result in over five deaths daily in Arizona, according to the state’s Department of Health Services.

Montenegro mentioned introducing a “placeholder bill” that will later be amended after talking with other government officials and experts.

“Now, Gov. Hobbs has stated that she agrees that this is a crisis. But her actions in gutting border-related funding to law enforcement says otherwise. That’s unacceptable,” he said.

Hobbs’s proposed budget cuts to the state’s Border Strike Force, The Center Square reported.

Later in the news conference, Republican House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci also criticized the governor.

“She is not here to help the Arizonans with our border crisis. We are as Republicans,” Biasiucci said of the Democrat, who took office earlier this month.

Former interim director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan spoke as well, and he referred to Arizona as “ground zero” for fentanyl.

When The Center Square asked if the legislation would crack down on social media platforms being used for trafficking activity, Montenegro said the current focus is raising awareness.

“The focus is making sure Arizona understands this is a public health crisis. This is a public safety crisis,” he said.

“It’s a porous border. Fentanyl is killing our – kids aren’t blue or red. Kids that are dying, they don’t understand politics, but they’re dying. And we need to do something about that,” Montenegro added.

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This article was published by The Center Square – Arizona and is reproduced with permission.

Dems Are Successfully Executing a Long-Range Strategy on the Border

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Pundits commonly depict the ongoing calamity at our border as the result of Biden administration incompetence. As with inflation, urban crime, and the deficit, their near-complete lack of insight and management skills is leading us over a cliff.

But this analysis itself is a major error. They know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it well. They are executing a long-range plan that is achieving great success.

The Biden administration is doing everything it can to bring as many illegal immigrants across the border as possible, braving considerable political blow-back to achieve their goals. They believe the mostly unskilled, uneducated migrants will gravitate to the party that promises more government benefits and thus ensure Democratic dominance indefinitely.

So, they alternately claim the border is actually “closed” and admit they are concerned but don’t know what to do about it. Now, admittedly some of the Washington Dems aren’t that bright, but it’s not possible to be so stupid as to not be able to see what is happening here.

Immediately after his inauguration, Biden announced the border was open and reversed the Trump policies, “Remain in Mexico” and “Title 42,” that had limited illegal border crossings. Now, illegal immigrants face no consequences if they defy the border police and make it across the line.

Instead, they are treated humanely, fed, housed and released into America, usually with a deferred asylum hearing which most don’t attend, since few have legitimate asylum claims. Yet our VP border czar pretends not to understand why five million illegal immigrants have crossed the border on her watch or what to do about it.

But open borders advocates gave away the real game. Czar Kamala, and others, said a plan to control the border might be worked out if Republicans would only “come to the table.” However, the only way to control the border would be through “comprehensive immigration reform,” which is their euphemism for amnesty.

So, there you have it. Democrats are okay with cranking up a situation so intolerable that Republicans will be forced to grant citizenship to the millions who entered America illegally.

Not long ago, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama called for strict border enforcement to protect the wages of low-income workers. Democratic opinion changed when the offspring of 20 million or so illegal aliens began to vote as anchor babies.

California has become a one-party state, and several other western states seem poised to follow suit (although the Democrats’ grip on Latino voters may be fading as they become Americanized).

Playing-dumb Democrats aren’t the only group that benefits from open borders. Foreign governments benefit from billions of dollars of remittances, money that immigrants send back home saved from their earnings and, often, government subsidies they receive here.

The political champions of racial grievance benefit from a large community of immigrants whose relative poverty purportedly is proof that America is nativist or racist. Thus, Latino welfare organizations, academic departments, lawyers, and political organizations are required to remedy this lack of social justice.

Employers clearly benefit from a pool of young compliant workers who work for wages and conditions unacceptable to growing numbers of Americans. Caring progressives not only get a cause to pontificate for, but nannies, gardeners, and housekeepers to make their lives easier.

Of course, illegal immigrants benefit too, although they successfully competed against a legal applicant who waited and played by the rules. But unlike legal immigrants, illegals don’t come because they love America and want to become loyal Americans.

Their illegal entrance shows their disdain for the Rule of Law. Many cheered wildly when socialists like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela promised to confiscate land and assets from “the rich” and give it to “the people,” ultimately resulting in the economic devastation they are now fleeing.

Americans are bound together as a nation not by blood or soil, but by the values and ideals which brought us freedom and prosperity. Our future depends on an immigration policy which selects for immigrants, of any color or ethnicity, who understand this and want to share with us not only the privileges, but also the responsibilities, of being an American.

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This article was published by AZ Free News and is reproduced with permission.

‘Drugs Aren’t Going to Smuggle Themselves’: Billboard Thanks Democrat Mark Kelly for Open Border

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A massive billboard ad in Phoenix is thanking Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for keeping the southern border open to invasion from illegal migrants.

“Thank you, Mark Kelly, for voting to keep our borders open,” the billboard reads. “The drugs aren’t going to smuggle themselves.

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The ad says it was paid for by Citizens for Sanity. According to its website, the group’s mission is “to return common sense to America, to highlight the importance of logic and reason, and to defeat ‘wokeism’ and anti-critical thinking ideologies.

Democrat Kelly and the Biden administration have allowed nearly 2 million illegal migrants into the nation in this fiscal year. August represents the fifth month in a row in which migrant apprehensions exceeded 180,000 migrants…..

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Continue reading this article at Breitbart.