U.S. Border Patrol agents testified before the Oversight Committee on Tuesday. They acknowledged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border so far this year is enough to kill nearly five times the population of the U.S. Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin testified that 700 pounds of fentanyl were seized in his area alone in 2022. He said that is enough to kill half the U.S. population. This was a common theme – the high numbers of deaths attributed to fentanyl.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), a committee member, said that fentanyl caused hundreds of deaths by overdose in his district last year. He said according to DHS, 76% of fentanyl “seized was coming through the southwest border.”

Burchett recited Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figures that show 9,400 pounds of fentanyl were seized in the country so far this year.

‘And approximately 76 percent, or 7,200 pounds of that was seized coming through our southwest border,’ he added.

When asking Modlin and fellow witness Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Floria Chavez whether they knew how many people that could kill, they admitted they did not but admitted they were aware it was a high number.

‘I’ll do the math for you,’ Burchett said. ‘It’s 1.6 billion people, with a ‘b’.’

‘That’s enough fentanyl to kill every American almost five times over,’ he noted.

‘And the bottom line is this country was on its way, I felt, to a secure border under President Trump,’ the lawmaker said. ‘But President Biden put an end to that on his first day in office. I believe Americans are dying as a result.’

The witnesses confirmed what some reporters on the border have reported – the border is open and since Biden took office, policies have changed. The Biden administration can say the border is closed all they want but that isn’t what the migrants think. In post-arrest interviews, they say the migrants think the border is open.

Democrats on the committee tried to use nuance and claimed that there is a distinction between the fentanyl coming through legal ports of entry by Americans and the fentanyl being smuggled between legal entry points. In other words, Democrats are more willing to point fingers at Americans bringing in drugs than the drug cartels trafficking fentanyl at the southern border. That didn’t fly with Modlin. He repeatedly said that it doesn’t matter which way fentanyl comes into the country to parents whose children died from an overdose. Many times the overdoses are unintentional because they are not aware they are ingesting fentanyl. It only takes two milligrams to kill a person.

Democrats tried to put lipstick on a pig by boasting about the number of drugs being seized by Border Patrol agents. They said it is proof that the agents are doing their jobs. However, no one is questioning that the Border Patrol agents are doing their jobs. The problem is that they are overwhelmed at the border and unable to handle the Biden border crisis as successfully as they would if the border was secure. So, no, the drug confiscation at the border isn’t the huge win that Democrats think it is. Last year was the highest rate to date of fentanyl-related overdoses and deaths. How is that a win?

Representative Gary Palmer of Alabama noted, ‘Fentanyl is a weapon that is coming across our borders that’s killing young people at a record level.’

‘The drug overdose death rate for people under age 24 is at an all-time high, especially among the African American community,’ he noted. ‘I have a real hard time understanding why we continue to operate the way that we operate.’

We’d all like to know that, Rep. Palmer. The only answer is that Joe Biden doesn’t care about the border crisis. Otherwise, the border would be secured, at least to the level it was during the previous administration. Instead, he decided to do things differently and that is why we are where we are.

Oversight Democrats accused Republicans of promoting white nationalism with the committee hearings on the border crisis. And, of course, they said Republicans are racist. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) took Democrats to the woodshed.

Democrats, however, accused the GOP-led hearing of ‘amplifying white nationalism.’

‘Good morning and good luck to everyone except GOP Oversight members who are using today’s hearing to amplify white nationalist conspiracy theories instead of a comprehensive solution to protect our borders and strengthen our immigration system,’ Oversight Democrats tweeted Tuesday.

Representative Byron Donalds of Florida cut into the usual procedure of the hearing because he wanted to respond after Representative Comer read the tweet out loud and bashed it as being ‘out of decorum’ of the congressional rules.

‘I’m just going to cut to the chase,’ said Donalds, who is black. ‘For my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who want to state that we’re using this hearing for White Nationalism, I’m not doing that.’

‘So, if you feel that strongly, come walk to this side of the room and let’s talk about it face-to-face,’ he urged. ‘But leave that kind of silly stuff for somebody else. Don’t bring that here today. This stuff is serious.’

More Republicans like him, please. Call out that nonsense to their faces.