Washington GOP Senate nominee Tiffany Smiley tackles fentanyl crisis at the border: 'It's killing our kids'

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Washington GOP Senate nominee Tiffany Smiley tackles fentanyl crisis at the border: 'It's killing our kids'

Tiffany Smiley, the Republican nominee for Senate in the state of Washington, is determined to end the drug crisis hitting the citizens of her state hard as deaths from fentanyl overdoses continue to climb.

She joined a number of other Republican women, brought together by the conservative women's advocacy group Winning for Women (WFW) and national security advocacy organization POLARIS National Security, for a trip to the U.S. southern border this week to see firsthand how failures at managing the crisis there were driving the tragedy facing numerous families in Washington.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Smiley, a registered nurse whose husband became the first blind U.S. Army officer to serve on active duty after being wounded while deployed in Iraq, described the horror stories surrounding the drug and human trafficking being perpetrated by the cartels at the border and outlined what she would do to combat the crisis if she were to become Washington's next U.S. senator.

"We know that we have a fentanyl and opioid crisis in Washington state. And, in fact, King County declared a public emergency on it. It's killing our kids," Smiley said, standing next to a section of the border wall built during former President Donald Trump's administration just outside McAllen, Texas.

COALITION OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN TAKE IMMIGRATION CRISIS HEAD ON WITH VISIT TO SOUTHERN BORDER HOTSPOT

Tiffany Smiley, the Republican Senate nominee for the state of Washington, stands along the U.S. border with Mexico just outside of McAllen, Texas, during a visit to observe the ongoing border crisis on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022.  (Brandon Gillespie)

"I've heard the stories across Washington state. We know it's coming through our southern border. So I wanted to come down here and see it for myself. I wanted to hear the stories. I wanted to talk to the sheriff. I wanted to talk to the agents that are caring for women and children who are coming across. And it's worse than what I thought," she added.

Smiley referenced a conversation she had with a local county sheriff, who had described to her the constant presence of gruesome crime scenes being perpetrated by cartel members on the U.S. side of the border, including murders and sexual assaults on women and children.

The sheriff told Smiley and the group of women that his biggest obstacle in dealing with the crisis was the federal government because of the lack of support provided to law enforcement in South Texas, including forcing them to take on the financial burden of dealing with the crime caused by the cartels.

"I think before we do anything, we need to elect leaders who will go to D.C. and secure the border to protect and save lives," Smiley said. "[The sheriff's] greatest roadblock is Washington, D.C., and he said, 'I wish people would just work across the aisle and do what's right.'"

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Washington Republican Senate nominee Tiffany Smiley (right) stands alongside Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, during a meeting with border patrol agents and their families in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. (Brandon Gillespie/Fox News)

When asked how the policies enacted in Washington, a Democrat stronghold, had exasperated the effects of the border crisis on its citizens, Smiley wasted no time in highlighting the disastrous situation of rising fentanyl overdose deaths and slammed President Biden, as well as her opponent, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., for their handling of the crisis.

The Biden administration, as well as a number of Democrats, have insisted there is no crisis at the southern border.

"Over the last two years, we have seen the rise in fentanyl, the rise in the opioid crisis, killing more kids. The number one killer of 18 to 45-year-olds is fentanyl. Every single room I go into in Washington state, there is someone who is affected by the fentanyl crisis, and it's killing our young kids," Smiley said.

"[Biden and Murray] have a combined 80 years in government and we are not any better off. I do not know the last time, if ever, Patty Murray has ever been to the border. Yes, she talks about helping women and children, but what I heard here today breaks my heart as a mom, as a nurse. We have a humanitarian crisis," she said. 

"We have stash houses in the United States of America where women are being held against their will, where they're being raped and trafficked. I mean, that is unacceptable to me. And I cannot wait to get back to D.C. and fight — actually fight and deliver results for women and children," Smiley added.

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Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., as she and other Senate Democrats speak to media after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Smiley vowed that, if elected, she would work to secure the southern border, which would include ensuring Title 42 — which provided the ability for American officials to bar migrants from entering the country during a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic — remained in place until there was "an actual plan" to managing the massive number of migrants crossing the border each month.

"We need to ensure that we have the manpower, that our border agents are given every resource, everything that they need to secure our border. We can do that through technology, through physical barriers, first and foremost," Smiley said. 

GOP Washington State Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley and her family. (Smiley for Washington)

"And then we need to ensure that police municipalities can get retaining bonuses, federal grants to retain and recruit police officers, because we have a police officer shortage. We need law and order," she added.

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Smiley went on to tout her record of taking on the federal government, including with reforms to the Department of Veterans' Affairs following her husband's injuries, and argued that was evidence she was the better candidate to represent the citizens of Washington.

"Patty Murray is a part of D.C. She is the federal government. So it's time that we delivered results. I am a fighter, I build coalitions, and, like that sheriff said, I'll work across the aisle to do what's right, and that's what I cannot wait to do for all of Washington," she said.