CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris (D) said on October 7 the amount of fentanyl coming into the nation has been cut in half under the Biden-Harris administration.
VERDICT: LIKELY FALSE. A fact check of Harris’s claim by Verify found it to be false. “No, the flow of fentanyl hasn’t been cut in half during the Biden-Harris administration,” the outlet said. “There’s no way to know whether the flow of fentanyl has been cut in half because there is limited data on how much fentanyl is entering the country.”
Verify reported Monday that Harris made the claim regarding the drug that has hurt, and many times killed, numerous Americans during a 60 Minutes interview.
The article said, “Harris was asked about immigration at the border and said under the President Joe Biden-Harris administration, ‘we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half, we have cut the flow of fentanyl by half.'”
According to a Breitbart News report in April 2022, four times as much fentanyl was coming across the United States-Mexico border under President Joe Biden (D) and Harris’s leadership compared to two years before during the Trump presidency.
The article detailed the numbers:
In Fiscal Year 2019, about 2,800 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border. The following year, that figure capped out at 4,800 pounds of fentanyl seized. By Fiscal Year 2021, which represents most of Biden’s first year in office, fentanyl seizures skyrocketed to about 11,200 pounds.
Already, in Fiscal Year 2022 that began October 1, 2021, about 5,300 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the border.
The figures indicate that fentanyl seizures under Biden, last year alone, have quadrupled since Fiscal Year 2019 when Trump was in office.
In September, Harris, who is running against former President Donald Trump (R) for the White House in 2024, said she would “stop the flow of illegal fentanyl” coming into the United States, per Breitbart News.
The article noted that “Meanwhile, drug-related deaths hit a record high on Harris and President Joe Biden’s watch.” Breitbart News has also reported that the fentanyl being brought over from China and Mexico is killing 70,000 Americans every year.
Over the weekend, police in Kyle, Texas, said officers responded to three fentanyl poisonings in one night, according to the outlet.
“While our public safety measures and fentanyl awareness campaigns have effectively reduced fentanyl-related incidents in our area, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to eliminate this threat from our community,” authorities said.
