Biden Authorizes DOD To Deploy Personnel To Border As International Drug Trafficking Crisis Intensifies

Biden Authorizes Deployment of Soldiers to Southern Border Amid Drug Trafficking Crisis

President Joe Biden has authorized Defense Department officials to deploy active duty and reserve soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to combat an international drug trafficking crisis that is overwhelming the southern border and American communities. The move comes as drug cartels take advantage of Biden’s open border policies by smuggling deadly narcotics inside the U.S.

Biden issued an executive order enclosed in a letter to Congress authorizing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to “order to active duty units and individual members of the Ready Reserve … to ensure DOD can sustain its support of DHS concerning international drug trafficking along the southwest border.”

@POTUS authorizes @SECDEF and Homeland Security SEC “to order to active duty such units and individual members of the Ready Reserve to ensure” DoD can “properly sustain its support” of Homeland Security “concerning international drug trafficking along the Southwest Border.” pic.twitter.com/FZlBwfYWSO

— Howard Altman (@haltman) April 27, 2023

The Fentanyl Crisis

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), more than 107,000 Americans died last year from violence and drug overdose at the hands of two major Mexican drug cartels — the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation criminal organizations. DEA officials mapped out the multi-faceted fentanyl crisis three years ago as the flow of the deadly opioid became more diverse compared to its start in 2014. Mexico and China are the primary sources, along with India, for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed “a lack of love” in American families for the deadly fentanyl crisis ravaging the U.S., saying the country does not produce fentanyl, calling the crisis America’s problem.

The State Department estimated that $154 billion in illicit funds pass through China annually, labeling the nation as a global hub of money laundering activity. Drug cartels and Chinese money laundering organizations have partnered together and created a system that uses Chinese banking apps and other popular Chinese encrypted communications technology, like WeChat.

Record Surge of Migration Expected

Biden’s authorization of deploying soldiers to the southern border comes as his administration braces for another record surge of migration when the Title 42 COVID restrictions officially end May 11, which has blocked immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border more than 2.5 million times before the pandemic. DHS Secretary Mayorkas said the U.S. would establish regional processing centers for immigrants seeking entry to reduce the number of arrivals after the restrictions end. “Our border is not open and will not be open after May 11,” Mayorkas said.

Since Biden took office over two years ago, lawmakers estimate up to six million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border, which has drawn wide criticism from critics of the administration.

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