Marjorie Taylor Greene dodges question about most fentanyl being smuggled by US citizens – not migrants

‘I’m sorry, is the CATO down there securing our border and stopping illegal aliens and human trafficking and drug trafficking’

Right-wing Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene dodged a question from The Independent when asked about her claims regarding the source of fentanyl crossing the US-Mexico border.

Ms Greene held a press conference on Thursday afternoon on her legislation calling for an accounting of all US dollars that had gone to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of the nation. During the press conference, she drew a parallel to the US-Mexico border, saying the United States was not adequately monitoring immigration.

“We’re ignoring the dangers happening at our border and the national security crisis that’s happening in our country while we are completely protecting another country’s border and also waging a proxy war with Russia,” she said. She also noted correctly that 56,516 Americans overdosed on fentanyl in 2020.

“This is a tragedy that’s happening, and it’s practically invisible,” she said.

But when asked about the fact that most fentanyl comes not from illegal border crossings but from legal ports of entry from American citizens, Ms Greene dodged the question.

“I would ask for where’s your proof on that because that’s not what we’ve been shown,” she said. “When we go to the border and we’re speaking with border patrol agents, when we’re on the ground, that’s not at all what we are being told.”

Then citing a study from the CATO Institute, a libertarian organisation that cited US government data, she rebuffed the study.

“The CATO Institute is not the border patrol,” she said. “I’m sorry, is the CATO down there securing our border and stopping illegal aliens and human trafficking and drug trafficking. I’m sorry, you’re going to have to get a direct source and when you bring the border patrol in here and and quote that, then we may take you seriously.”

But according to an analysis of US Customs and Border Protection data from Immigration Impact found that 95 per cent of all fentanyl seized came from a port of entry or by a CBP vehicle checkpoint. Similarly, the CATO report cited data showing that according to the US Sentencing Commission, 86.3 per cent of convicted fentanyl traffickers were American citizens.