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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) is readying a plan that would convert Title 42, the public health authority used at the United States-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, to fight the nation’s deadly fentanyl crisis.
In 2020, in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, former President Donald Trump invoked Title 42 at the border to ensure that federal immigration officials could quickly return illegal aliens to Mexico for the sake of public health.
Title 42 now only remains in place at the border, though it is being used increasingly sparingly because Republican attorneys general are suing President Joe Biden’s administration to preserve the public health authority.
Green, who recently was chosen to head the committee, detailed to local media his plans to introduce legislation that would convert Title 42 from a public health authority tackling coronavirus to one that tackles fentanyl as more than 100,000 Americans die every year from the deadly drug.
Deb Walker, of Chester, VT, visits the grave of her daughter Brooke Goodwin, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chester. Goodwin, 23, died in March of 2021 of a fatal overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl and xylazine. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)
“Let’s face it: Fentanyl is coming across the border, and 107,000 Americans died last year,” Green told Main Street Nashville. “That’s over a billion over the course of 10 years, if my math is correct. So that’s a crisis. That’s a healthcare crisis.”
“Take the fentanyl crisis, call it a health crisis, and use that to further shut down the flow of the border,” Green detailed.
In May of last year, as Breitbart News reported, Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) floated the idea of converting Title 42 to fight the nation’s fentanyl crisis. Hagerty went as far as to introduce a plan that would do just that, though it was blocked by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI).
“We desperately need Title 42 to fight this drug epidemic,” Hagerty said of his plan. “It’s a tool that would quite literally save American lives in every state in the union immediately.”
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Brandon Dunn of the Forever 15 Project detailed how the Mexican Drug Cartels have successfully killed hundreds of thousands of American citizens by smuggling fentanyl through the southern border.
“The current statistic is that it’s the number one killer for Americans ages 15 to 45,” Dunn said. “Honestly, by next year, we believe that number will drop to 15 to 45 years old. We’ve had some children as young as 13 years old die from this drug.”
Dunn’s son, Noah, died last August at the age of 15 after being poisoned by fentanyl.
As Breitbart News has chronicled, fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed in American border communities as a result of increased drug trafficking at the southern border. In one community, Riverside County, California, fentanyl deaths have increased by more than 800 percent in the last five years.
These soaring fentanyl deaths are not only tied to drug overdoses but also poisonings, as law enforcement says they are finding fentanyl “in everything” from candy to vape pens.
Nationally, more than 100,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses, including tiny doses of fentanyl. Put another way, the U.S. is losing a population the size of South Bend, Indiana, every year from drugs primarily coming across the border.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
