Rep. Katko: Biden 'not doing anything' to stop the flow of drugs coming across border, killing Americans

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Rep. Katko on drugs seized at southern border: 'Crisis' Biden admin 'has created'

Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., the Republican leader of the House Committee on Homeland Security, argues President Biden is 'not doing anything' to stop the smuggling of drugs into the U.S.

Republican New York Rep. John Katko said President Biden is "not doing anything" to stop the flow of drugs coming across the border in a "crisis" he argued the White House created.  

"One thing cartels know: When the border is secure, it’s much more difficult for them to get the drugs across. When it's not secure, it's a piece of cake for them. And that's what we're seeing now," Katko said on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures." "When the president opened up the border last year and allowed people to flow into this country, it was a boon for the cartels."

Mounted U.S. Border Patrol agents watch Haitian immigrants along the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 20, 2021.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

Drug overdoses hit a record high of more than 100,000 deaths over a 12-month span through April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week. It marks a nearly 29% rise from the deaths recorded in the same period a year earlier, and indicates it could get worse. 

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"It's creating a mess in the United States all over the place," Katko said. "Over 100,000 people in the last year have died from drug overdoses, and the vast majority had been laced with fentanyl. And the seizing of fentanyl at the border in the last year, to kill every man, woman and child in the United States, is seven times over."

"It’s a crisis this administration has created and he’s not doing anything about it."

U.S. Border Patrol agents working the Interstate 19 Immigration Checkpoint near Amado, Arizona, seized over 50 pounds of suspected fentanyl on Oct. 13, 2021. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

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Many of the overdose deaths in the last year were fueled by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, and the seizures of that drug at the border have increased in recent years. In fiscal year 2019, 2,804 pounds of the drug was seized. That number increased to 11,201 pounds in fiscal year 2021. 

Rep. John Katko speaks during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington on Sept. 17, 2020.  (Chip Somodevilla/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Katko noted that one city in his state, Syracuse, saw 14 overdose deaths in one day last week.

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"Really every state and every city is a border state and city now because of what's happening with these drugs coming into our country and the illegal aliens coming in, that are that are involved in criminal conduct," he said.