With cartels smuggling more and more drugs from Mexico into the United States, Congressman Chip Roy (TX) has been outspoken about the need to secure the Texas-Mexico border in order to curb the invasion.
Just last month, $190,000 worth of heroin and fentanyl were seized at the border. On Wednesday, $600,000 worth of cocaine was seized from a juice truck at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas, sending more alarms about the crisis on the southern border.
Responding to a New York Post story, Roy declared that such discoveries are part of the “daily battle” at the border and that cartels are “exploiting open borders for profit and political power in Mexico.”
Daily battle. Cartels are exploiting open borders for profit and political power in Mexico… endangering and causing the death and trafficking of both Americans and migrants. #EndBorderInvasion #DesignateCartelsFTO https://t.co/NgiegEIYl9
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 13, 2022
This isn’t the first time the World Trade Bridge has been in the spotlight as a hotspot for smugglers. On May 31, Customs and Border Protection detected $2.7 million worth of cocaine stashed in the tires of a truck.
The latest massive drug seizure comes as the number of interceptions at the U.S.-Mexico border reached an all-time high and continues to increase.
Since March of last year, the Texas Department of Public safety has seized more than 300 million lethal doses of fentanyl and made more than 14,000 criminal arrests.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection also reported that for Fiscal Year 2021, they saw a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl and a 98 percent increase in cocaine being seized.
The drug crisis not only impacts Americans, but also the many migrants who pay the cartels to smuggle them into the country and are often forced to smuggle the drugs as a form of payment.
In response, Roy has been supportive of border counties’ efforts to declare the crisis an invasion and has called on Gov. Greg Abbott to do the same.
“The governor is giving resources,” said Roy at a press conference in Brackettville last week, referencing razor wires and DPS officers placed along the Rio Grande. “But guess what, it doesn’t work in the end if the federal government refuses to enforce the laws in the United States.”
We should declare an invasion. We should, as Texas, turn people away and do what is necessary to secure our communities because [we] support our communities.
