Over the last four years the United States has experienced the highest levels of illegal crossings at our Southern Border since Border Patrol started tracking this data in 1925. In fact, there have been more than 7.9 million encounters of illegal immigrants, with more than 1.8 million additional gotaways who evaded Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico Border. This has turned every state into a border state.
President Joe Biden’s open border policies have also led to historic numbers of deadly drugs being trafficked into our country. As a consequence, the Mexican cartels and their Chinese counterparts are finding cheaper ways to manufacture these drugs, most notably illicit fentanyl, and are easily smuggling it into our nation, endangering millions of Americans.
This rapid increase of illicit fentanyl in our communities is being felt across my home state of Kentucky. In 2023, illicit fentanyl was the cause of over 70 percent of all drug overdoses across the Commonwealth. This is no coincidence as the amount of illicit fentanyl that crosses the border continues to rise, so do the number of deaths across Kentucky and the nation.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health subcommittee, which I chair, has heard the heart-breaking testimony from too many parents, law enforcement officials, and health care professionals who have lost loved ones to an overdose.
That’s why, under my leadership, the House GOP voted to permanently schedule fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs and reauthorize the SUPPORT Act, which helps to provide wrap-around treatment services to those seeking help to overcome substance use disorder.
Alongside the trafficking of deadly drugs, we continue to see the dramatic rise of criminals and suspects on the terror watch list infiltrating our border and entering our communities across the nation, making them unsafe and vulnerable. Just weeks ago, illegal immigrants from Venezuela ruthlessly murdered a 12-year-old girl in Houston, Texas. And just a mother from Maryland, who was out running, was raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. This same illegal alien was also linked to a violent attack on a nine-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in California.
This violence by illegal immigrants is becoming too common with the number of Angel families rising each year and it is a clear indication Congress must work to restore law and order at our Southern border. We can do so by reinstating the Remain in Mexico policies of President Donald Trump and by finishing the construction of the wall at our Southern border. Both of these policies are included in H.R. 2, the most transformational immigration reform policy to ever pass the House, thanks to the leadership of House Republicans.
The future of our country hangs in the balance. President Ronald Reagan famously once said that “a nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”
We are at a time for choosing, whether we will act or continue to let our broken immigration system continue to be exploited by our adversaries and others who wish to do us harm. We must regain control of our Southern Border, and I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure we once again have a safe, secure, and effective immigration process in our country.
Congressman Brett Guthrie represents the 2nd Congressional District of Kentucky. Following his military service in the Army, Guthrie joined a Bowling Green, Ky.,-based manufacturing business that was started by his father and represented the 32nd District in the Kentucky Senate. Guthrie was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and currently serves as the Chair of the Health Subcommittee on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and as a Deputy Whip within the House Republican Conference.