The United States Government must address the crisis experienced at the Mexican border due to the irregular entry of migrants and the smuggling of illegal fentanyl, urged this Wednesday the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson .
After three weeks of disagreement within the Republican Party to elect a new President of that legislative body, Johnson issued a message in which he listed the border situation as a priority for his administration on Capitol Hill, behind only endorse his support. .
“We have a catastrophe on our southern border,” said Johnson, who replaced California Republican Kevin McCarthy, who three weeks ago became the first Speaker of the House to be removed after an internal revolt from the wing. the most conservative in his Party.
Since the beginning of the current legislature in January of this year, the Republican Party has chosen the high flow of irregular migration across the Mexican border as one of its main axes to attack the administration of the Administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
“The Senate and White House can no longer ignore the problem. From Texas to New York, waves of illegal immigrants are stressing our communities to the point of destruction,” added Johnson, a congressman who represents a district based in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Also, the new President of the Lower House cited the urgency of the attack on the marketing of the synthetic drug known as fentanyl – responsible for more than 75 thousand overdose deaths in the United States – and which is carried out mainly in Mexico using precursor chemicals imported from China. .
“We know that our streets are flooded with fentanyl and that everyone in our communities, children and even adults are dying from it. The status quo is unacceptable. Inaction is unacceptable and we must come together and deal with the broken border. We have to do it,” Johnson said in his message.
In recent days, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that fentanyl seizures at the Mexican border during Fiscal Year 2023, which ended in September, reached 12.1 tons, which is almost double the previous year.
Known as a lawyer focused on conservative causes such as the fight against abortion and against same-sex marriage, the new Speaker of the House of Commons is not the most vocal member of his Party on the issue in the fight against narcotics at the border. .
According to data from the Capitol, Johnson promoted only two legislative proposals focused on fentanyl: one to permanently classify fentanyl within the catalog of US controlled drugs and the other to increase the resource for addiction care in the US. .
However, Johnson is part of a task force put together within the Lower House that was created in the middle of the year that is focused on creating legislation to attack the drug cartels in Mexico and that is led by the Republican congressman from Texas, Dan Crenshaw.
One of the priorities of the anti-narcotics issues that the House of Representatives must negotiate with the Senate is the harmonization of a proposed law that allows the US Executive to expropriate assets frozen to Mexican cartels in order to they can be dedicated to issues of support for the US police forces. .
