He Blames Biden’s Border Policies For Fentanyl Deaths in His State, But the Rise Happened Under Trump. Then he Voted Against Funding For Screening at Our Border to Catch Fentanyl Traffickers.
Washington, DC – Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty represents the GOP approach to border policy and immigration. It’s all politics, all disinformation, all hypocrisy, all the time. As 3,000 Tennesseans die from drug overdoses each year, Sen. Hagerty blames Biden for letting in asylum seekers and immigrants who he says bring deadly fentanyl to his state. And the Senator votes against funding for screening aimed at catching fentanyl traffickers.
Hagerty is seeking to score political points by forcing a vote on his bill to keep Title 42 in place to deal with the scourge of fentanyl coming into his state. What a cruel joke.
- Senator Hagerty voted against funding aimed at catching fentanyl traffickers at our ports of entry. 99% of fentanyl and other drug seizures happen at our ports of entry. That’s because drug traffickers smuggle their deadly product in trucks and cars – not on the backs of asylum-seekers who want to be apprehended so they can apply for protection. Only 15% of commercial vehicles and only 2% of passenger cars are currently inspected. But Hagerty thinks the people of his state are stupid. He voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $3.6 billion to dramatically improve vehicle and biometric screenings for narcotics and other security threats, filling staffing vacancies at ports, and creating a modern and integrated information technology system.
- Hagerty blames Biden even though the in-state rise in fentanyl deaths started in 2016 and rose to record levels under Trump. Tennessee news station WKRN recently reported, “Hagerty blames Biden for rise in fentanyl deaths, but TN health report shows year-over-year rise since 2016.” The article notes that in Tennessee, “from 2016 until 2020, overdose deaths rose from around 1,600 to over 3,000 deaths. While opioids were the overall leading cause, fentanyl was second and shot up nearly 85% from 1,087 deaths in 2019 to 2,014 deaths in 2020.”
- Republicans’ concern and criticism on Title 42 and the border is grounded in bad faith and falsehoods and motivated by cynical politics. Don’t forget, the GOP and right wing media started blaming Biden for rising border numbers while Donald Trump was still President! All Republicans have to offer are attack ads, ‘open borders’ falsehoods, and the same cruel and chaotic policies that Trump and Stephen Miller advanced. Sen. Hagerty even claims that building Trump’s border wall will help interdict drugs and “secure the border.” Republicans refuse to acknowledge the facts: under Biden, almost 80% of the people “encountered” at the border are detained or expelled; Title 42 coincided with a significant increase in “border encounters” – primarily by quadrupling the number of repeat crossers; and Title 42 stopped the use of consequence delivery mechanisms under existing law. Title 42 is a public health policy, not an immigration or border plan. It’s time to build a fair and functional system that protects refugees and our borders.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
Senator Hagerty is either an uninformed idiot or he thinks his constituents are uninformed idiots. He blames Biden for fentanyl deaths in his state when the rise occurred under Trump. He wrongly blames asylum-seekers for drug trafficking when 99% of the trafficking occurs through ports of entry in commercial vehicles and passenger cars. And to top it off, he voted against the funding that improves screening at ports of entry designed to catch and deter fentanyl traffickers.
His solution? Build Trump’s costly, ineffective border wall.
No matter how much Hagerty and his fellow fabulists in the GOP scream “open borders” and blame Biden, our borders have never been more secure, our ports of entry need enhanced screening technology to interrupt drug trafficking, and Hagerty has nothing to say about either. Instead, he makes silly and irresponsible claims that lay bare the bad faith of the GOP when it comes to matters of life and death in their states.
- For more, read the recent America’s Voice analysis on how Republicans are using their political ads to attempt to connect the issues of fentanyl to their overall nativist appeals despite lacking basic logic or facts.
- Check out ongoing examples of Republicans’ anti-immigrant ads at the America’s Voice GOP Ad Tracker: http://gopadtracker.com/
