[FoxNews] A memo circulating among Senate Republicans this week details how the fentanyl crisis continues to worsen across U.S. communities as southern border drug seizures and encounters reach record highs.Those who have witnessed activity at the border believe the crisis at the border and the fentanyl crisis are correlated.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like this. The numbers, the organization, the movement. And the federal government is doing a masterful job of keeping it on the down-low as much as possible — sanitizing it as much as possible," retired Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent and Texas congressional candidate Frank Lopez Jr. told Fox News Digital.
CBP agents seized an unprecedented 10,500 lbs. of the deadly drug in 2021, and seizures have already surpassed 12,000 lbs. so far this year — the most fentanyl ever seized in a single year in the United States. That much fentanyl could kill the entire U.S. population eight times over, the memo circulating among senators notes.
Last month, border encounters surpassed 200,000 for the first time. Meanwhile, agents seized a record 2,300 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest and coastal/interior U.S. borders last month, meaning the issue continues to worsen.
The number of migrants who have successfully crossed into the United States this fiscal year has surpassed 2 million, with about 8,000 crossings per day.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told Fox News' Peter Doocey Aug. 31 the Biden administration has seen a "200% increase of fentanyl seizures, which means that we are … doing the job of catching drug traffickers."
But with the increase in fentanyl seizures comes an increase in fentanyl coming into the country. In 2021, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported seizing more than 15,000 pounds of substances containing fentanyl and more than 20.4 million fentanyl-laced prescription pills. This year, DEA agents have recovered 20,000 pounds of fentanyl in the interior.