Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

BETSY MCCAUGHEY: Biden’s Magical Solution To Stopping Drug Cartels

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The Mexican drug cartels are killing off our friends and family members with fentanyl manufactured in super labs south of the border and smuggled into the U.S. President Joe Biden couldn’t care less.

Biden is in Mexico claiming he’s seeking the Mexican government’s help to stop the carnage. Truth is, the trip is a dog and pony show. Photo-ops, empty promises and such will be followed by rapid backsliding.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lacks both the will and the muscle to tackle the cartels, which have paramilitary forces that outgun the Mexican police and control swaths of territory.

Biden, for his part, has no intention of securing the southern border — the only measure that actually would stop the flow of killer drugs into our towns and schools.

Biden wants migrants to continue illegally entering by the millions, even though the onslaught is diverting Border Patrol agents from detecting fentanyl smugglers. Border Patrol agents are being pulled from drug interdiction and other law enforcement duties to process and care for migrants. The Democrats are willing to pay that price.

In order to swell the nation with new immigrants, Democrats are handing America over to the cartels. The cartels, which profit by trafficking in human beings as well as drugs, are double winners.

Who are the losers? American families losing their loved ones to fentanyl overdoses. Over 70,000 Americans are dying yearly from fentanyl-laced drugs, including roughly 30,000 young people aged 15 to 34. Fentanyl is invading our high schools and middle schools, sometimes killing kids who are trying drugs for the first time.

The Biden administration must know that asking Lopez Obrador to battle the cartels is a fool’s errand. Since taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador, a leftist, has pledged to end the war on drugs, not prosecute it. His motto is “abrazos no balazos,” which means “hugs not bullets.” Fighting the cartels is not on his agenda.

Last week, Mexico arrested Ovidio Guzman, leader of the one of the biggest cartels and son of kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The arrest was likely an empty diplomatic gesture because of Biden’s impending arrival, not a sign of change, suggests Derek Maltz, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official.

Lopez Obrador hasn’t lifted a finger to go after the fentanyl super labs or hand over numerous high-level cartel criminals under indictment in the U.S., explains Maltz, who headed DEA’s Special Operations. Commenting on Ovidio’s arrest, Maltz adds that without “sustained attacks against the cartel leadership and the production labs, it’s not going to make a difference. Meanwhile we have 9,000 Americans dying every month.”

To stop the deaths, the U.S. Border Patrol needs to intercept the fentanyl as it’s being smuggled, usually in cars and trucks or through tunnels. Sadly, catching those smugglers is not a Democratic Party priority.

The Democrats’ omnibus budget bill, signed by Biden two weeks ago, prohibits additional money for Customs and Border Protection from being used for technology or manpower to secure the border. Instead, the budget says the money must be used to pay charities that provide housing and services for migrants, as well as paying for airline and bus tickets for migrants to reach their chosen U.S. destination.

Democrats are turning Customs and Border Protection into a concierge travel service.

The Border Patrol Union said the Biden administration wants more money “to process more people so they can release more people.”

That has been Biden’s objective since the start. It’s why he suspended the Remain in Mexico policy and halted construction on the border wall on his first day in office. And why he is fighting in the Supreme Court to toss Title 42 in order to keep more migrants in the country illegally.

The cartels serve the Democratic Party’s goal of flooding the nation with migrants.

But it’s a deal with the devil. These same cartels operate distribution hubs in cities and towns across the U.S., bringing in lethal drugs and criminals to sell them. It’s time we fight back. Asking Mexico for help is a charade.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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