Surveillance is not key to solve fentanyl---It’s trafficked primarily by U.S. citizens, and ending the crisis requires work across 100 countries.

Fentanyl comes in through ports of entry, not unauthorized migrants: Law enforcement agencies and the facts on the ground agree that most or all the illicit drugs smuggled into the country enter alongside commercial traffic at legal points of entry. 90% of all fentanyl seized at the border is at ports of entry in commercial trucks and passenger cars, not in the backpacks of migrants crossing on foot and looking to present themselves to Border Patrol agents in order to apply for asylum. The Drug Enforcement Administration has repeatedly underscored this fact. And James Mandryck, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Office of Intelligence, Customs and Border Protection, recently also confirmed this fact to Congress.

Fentanyl is primarily trafficked by U.S. citizens: The evidence points to the fact that most of the fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. is done by U.S. citizens and paid for by U.S. citizens who are the ultimate consumers. This is a point CBP’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner also confirmed in a recent Congressional hearing. The organizations that traffic in hard drugs do not risk their product on desperate people facing steep odds and a dangerous crossing who are seeking out U.S. authorities to whom they can surrender themselves while asking for asylum.

Seizures of fentanyl at ports of entry are not evidence of “open borders.” Fentanyl seizures have increased under the Biden administration, but this increased interdiction is not, as Republicans absurdly suggest, evidence of “open borders” but the exact opposite. As CNN’s political fact checker Daniel Dale noted: “Republicans also keep citing the large quantities of fentanyl being at the border, but fentanyl being seized is more proof the border is not actually open … The image Republicans are trying to create is a migrant sneaking through the desert with a sack of drugs, that happens in some tiny percentage of cases, but it is certainly not the predominant story.”

“Ending the opioid crisis does not start, and it won’t end at the border,” Kemp Chester, Senior Advisor to the Director of National Drug Control Policy, recently said in testimony before Congress. The nation’s top law enforcement officers are clear, tackling the fentanyl crisis means tackling sophisticated organized crime operations operating across 100 counties, using the tools of international trade to deal with precursor chemical shipments and cracking down on money laundering operations. Enforcement that must be aided by treatment and prevention efforts in the U.S. Notably, none of the above has anything to do with immigration policy.

The tools of trade are needed to disrupt the supply chain. Standard law enforcement efforts alone will not solve the fentanyl crisis. This is particularly true of a myopic focus on interdiction at ports of entry which can encourage suppliers to increase the supply and potency of the drugs. As experts in the field have argued, trade penalties or sanction regimes could be a much more effective tool to combat the fentanyl supply chain. An approach the Biden administration has begun to adopt, but where there is still significant room for more focus.

The problem of fentanyl overdoses has been building for years. The exponential spike in fentanyl-related overdose deaths began in 2015, and continued to its tragic exponential growth throughout the Trump administration. As the Washington Post reported, since the early 2000’s there have been “three waves of the opioid epidemic — fueled first by prescription pain pills, then by heroin and now by illicit fentanyl”. They write: “​​Prescription pain pills were the main cause of overdose deaths through 2011. Soon, drug users turned to heroin, which set the stage for fentanyl.” This history, while deeply concerning and tragic, is yet another proof point that the fentanyl crisis and migration patterns are in no way correlated.

The massive law enforcement operations underway underscore the issue is not one of immigration enforcement. In early spring of 2023, DHS launched operations “Blue Lotus” and “the Four Horseman,” which resulted in the seizure of nearly 10,000 pounds of fentanyl and nearly 300 arrests targeting fentanyl traffickers and distributors. And in the summer of 2023, DHS announced an ongoing follow-up, joint law enforcement operations “Artemis” and “Rolling Wave” are targeting the supply chain of precursor chemicals.

There is no correlation between the number of migrants seeking safety at the border and fentanyl seizures. One disingenuous part of this nativist narrative argues that an increase in migrants at the southern border diverts resources and thereby allows fentanyl to be smuggled without detection. However, the facts do not support this line of argument. Data shows there is no decrease in the amount of fentanyl seized compared to increases in migrant encounters, as Republicans suggest. This makes sense as fentanyl is largely smuggled alongside commercial traffic at POEs, which clearly is not affected by the levels of asylum seekers.