Keystone Today

Even though Border Patrol agents are reporting record arrests at the border with Mexico, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted "the southern border is secure" upon being asked about the topic at the Aspen Security Forum in July.

That seemingly contradictory assessment has prompted a social media outcry, especially as the problems manifest themselves in growing numbers of opioid-related deaths in myriad states.

"How insulting is it that DHS Secretary Mayorkas says the border is 'secure' when: Border patrol agents need help. Our fentanyl crisis is worsening. CBP numbers keep rising," the Republican State Leadership Committee said on Twitter. "Families' lives are in danger & this admin keeps turning a blind eye."

Despite the rosy assessment by Mayorkas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released operational statistics for the month of July, and the number of arrests at the southern border during the agency’s fiscal year so far is near 2 million, representing a record high. Related to that, the number of open border-related fentanyl seizures is also at an all-time high and is worsening the nation’s drug-related overdose and death epidemic. In Pennsylvania, far removed from the border, the number of overdose deaths has drastically risen in the past two years.

So far in Fiscal Year 2022—which runs from Oct. 1, 2021 until Sept. 30, 2022—U.S. Border Patrol agents have made approximately 1,822,160 arrests at the southern border; the most recent CBP data said.

The number so far in fiscal year 2022 already outpaces the record set last fiscal year, when 1.66 million apprehensions were made during the fiscal year ending in September 2021, a recent Wall Street Journal report said. With approximately one month left in the agency’s fiscal year, analysts predict full-year arrests will surpass 2 million for the first time.

But CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus noted that July marked the second month in a row of decreased encounters.

"While the encounter numbers remain high, this is a positive trend and the first two-month drop since October 2021,” he said in the CBP report.

CBP nationwide total encounter data for FY22 through July showed a corresponding rise in fentanyl seizures, which have already increased 203% when compared to the previous fiscal year.

Fentanyl overdoses are officially the leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45, followed by suicide, COVID-19 and car accidents; an April Narconon report said. Fentanyl is linked to 64% of drug overdose deaths and is most commonly laced in cocaine, heroine, ecstasy, Xanax, oxycontin and marijuana that is sold on the streets.

In 2021, there were an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the U.S., provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) said. If those numbers hold up, they will set a record. NCHS statistics indicate that the number of deaths related to synthetic opioids (fentanyl) far outpaced that of any other drug. The number of fentanyl deaths climbed 23% from 2020 (57,834) to 2021 (71,238).

A press release from the Office of the Attorney General reported that drug overdose deaths in Pennsylvania rose by 16.4% in 2020, then climbed another 6% to reach 5,438 confirmed overdose deaths in 2021.

"Fentanyl has rapidly replaced heroin as the dominant opioid in Pennsylvania,” state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in the release. “Last year, our Bureau of Narcotics Investigation seized more fentanyl than they had in the last four years combined. The rise in fentanyl has also contributed to a rise in overdose deaths. Last year, we lost 15 Pennsylvanians each and every day to a drug overdose.”

The release called on law enforcement and policymakers to do more to combat the crisis and devote additional resources to stopping fentanyl from crossing the southern border.