Media Center

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)– Congressman Scott DesJarlais (TN-04) officially introduced H.R. 7359, legislation to fight back against illegal drug smuggling at the southern border. 

 

Representative DesJarlais officially introduced the Stop Fentanyl Border Crossings Act. The bill aims to use Title 42 authority to expedite the expulsion process of illegal border crossers due to the immediate public health risks posed by the record amounts of fentanyl and other deadly and addictive drugs crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

The congressman, and also a medical doctor, noted that the number of drug overdose deaths in Tennessee topped 3,000 last year and over 100,000 in the United States.

 

Representative DesJarlais said in an exclusive to FOX News, “To put into perspective, that's as many people in one year we've lost to drug overdoses than we have to combat casualties dating back to the Korean War, so it certainly should be considered a public health emergency, and it puts a tool in the arsenal of our Border Patrol agents to stem the unprecedented flow of illegals across the southern border.”

 

President Biden’s DEA administrator also admitted last year that fentanyl is being mass-produced by cartels coming out of Mexico. 

 

DesJarlais believes that Title 42 gives border patrol agents another tool to help protect and defend our southern border. The current Trump-era Title 42 authority is set to expire on May 23, 2022. 

 

H.R. 7359 mirrors legislation introduced in the Senate by Senator Bill Hagerty.

 

 

###

 

 

 

You can read the full exclusive here.