Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been within the sizzling seat over border crossings.
The Department of Homeland Security says its new fentanyl targeting operation has already seized 900 pounds of the drug in its first week.
“Operation Blue Lotus,” a centered operation that comes to extra stops and the usage of complex era alongside the border, began on March 13. The operation has resulted in 18 seizures, 16 federal arrests and two state arrests, in keeping with DHS. Those seizures averted over 900 pounds of fentanyl, 700 pounds of methamphetamines and 100 pounds of cocaine from entering the United States via final Sunday.
Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas speaks on the DHS twentieth Anniversary Ceremony in Washington, Mar. 1, 2023.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by means of Getty Images
“Operation Blue Lotus is a DHS-led, coordinated surge effort to curtail the flow of illicit fentanyl smuggled into the United States from Mexico and bring to justice the dangerous criminal organizations profiting from the illegal production, distribution, and sale of this dangerous substance,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated after assembly with CBP brokers alongside the border on Tuesday.
As a part of the operation, further Homeland Security Investigations brokers have been deployed and CBP’s Forward Operating Labs at Points of Entry behavior “real-time analysis of unknown substances.”
Fentanyl has killed on reasonable 100,000 Americans every yr, in keeping with the Center for Disease Control.
Vehicles input the San Ysidro Port of Entry border checkpoint on the U.S. – Mexico border, Feb. 19, 2021, in San Diego, Calif.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by means of Getty Images
Mayorkas has been within the sizzling seat from congressional Republicans about how the management has treated the border, with a number of lawmakers many times announcing they wish to impeach him over the problem.
He is set to seem sooner than the Senate Judiciary Committee subsequent week.
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