In three months, enough Fentanyl was smuggled across the border to kill the entire population of California

Tim Pearce, DCNF

RIO GRANDE CITY, TX - DECEMBER 07: A U.S. Border Patrol officer body searches an undocumented immigrant after he illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and was caught on December 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. Border Patrol agents continue to detain hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants trying to avoid capture after crossing into the United States, even as migrant families and unaccompanied minors from Central America cross and turn themselves in to seek assylum. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) — (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Border Patrol agents confiscated more than 36 million lethal doses worth of fentanyl in three months while catching illegal immigrants entering the U.S. along the southern border, according to congressional testimony.

Andrew R. Arthur of the research institute Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Thursday. Congress invited witnesses to discuss how environmental regulations affect border enforcement.

“In addition to aliens, Border Patrol Agents apprehended a significant quantity of narcotics in FY 2017,” Arthur said, quoting data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Last year, agents seized 9,346 pounds of cocaine, 953 pounds of heroin, 861,231 pounds of marijuana, 10,328 pounds of methamphetamines, and 181 pounds of fentanyl.”

From October through December, the first three months of Fiscal Year 2018, border agents seized another 161 pounds of fentanyl, Arthur added.

The drug is a “potent synthetic opioid … approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Oxford Treatment Center identifies 2 milligrams as a lethal dose of fentanyl, meaning that 161 pounds of the drug would be sufficient to kill 36,514,156 people,” Arthur said.

Environmental regulations are hampering and inhibiting border agents from securing the Mexican/American border against illegal immigrants, gang members and drug runners.

“We’re certainly handicapping ourselves,” Arkansas GOP Rep. Bruce Westerman, who chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview Wednesday. Smugglers are “crossing the border illegally, there’s illegal drugs involved a lot of times. There’s all kinds of laws being broken and I don’t think they mind breaking the environmental rules, either.”

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