A Prescott mother blames Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for her daughter’s death.
In testimony to Congress on Thursday, Josephine Dunn explained that her daughter, Ashley, overdosed from fentanyl trafficked through the border in May 2021. Dunn testified on the day that would have been her daughter’s 29th birthday. Mayorkas declined to appear for that hearing.
“In my humble opinion, Mr. Mayorkas’ border policy is partially responsible for my daughter’s death. His wide-open border policy allows massive quantities of poisonous fentanyl into our country. Arizona is the fentanyl superhighway into the United States,” said Dunn. “We need to close the fentanyl superhighway; we need to close the border.”
The border crisis initiated under President Joe Biden ushered in a tidal wave of fentanyl trafficking. The surge in overdoses and deaths from the potent drug has resulted in its classification as an epidemic.
The fatal overdose of Dunn’s daughter prompted several attempts to pass an eponymous law in the state legislature, the Ashley Dunn Act, to charge drug dealers with homicide if their product contributed to the death of a user. State Rep. Quang Nguyen (R-LD01) carried the law both times.
Lawmakers have shot down the bill during both the 2022 and 2023 sessions. Some have contended that the law would be unconstitutional since it allows homicide charges for individuals whose actions weren’t a direct cause for the victim’s death. Former users also have argued that such a bill would strip accountability from the users themselves. Proponents argued that it would result in fewer drug deaths and deter distributors from selling lethal drugs.
In response to Dunn’s testimony, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) noted that the current Biden administration tasks Border Patrol with taking in and taking care of illegal immigrants more so than preventing illegal migration.
“The Biden Admin has tied the hands of our Border Patrol and sabotaged our national security,” said Crane. “The money the Biden Admin is requesting for ‘border security’ would be used to process more aliens into our communities NOT for protecting Americans.”
The Biden Admin has tied the hands of our Border Patrol and sabotaged our national security.
The money the Biden Admin is requesting for "border security" would be used to process more aliens into our communities NOT for protecting Americans. pic.twitter.com/c4VQcLQvU4
According to Maricopa County, fentanyl constitutes 60 percent of all drug-related deaths and has become the deadliest drug in the state.
In 2023, the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) documented over 1,600 confirmed opioid deaths in the state and over 4,000 non-fatal opioid overdoses. So far, the data indicates that there were less deaths than there were in 2022 and 2021, which had over 1,900 and over 2,000 opioid deaths respectively, but more overdoses: there were just over 3,400 opioid overdoses in 2022 and just over 3,700 overdoses in 2021.
Naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, was administered nearly 6,000 times this past year compared to over 8,000 times in 2022 and over 7,100 times in 2021.
However, AZDHS noted that the data may not be complete for the months of September through December of last year.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
As the issues at America’s southern border continue to mount, one Arizona Congressman took advantage of a face-to-face encounter with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to let him know exactly how he felt about the official’s job performance.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing to “examine the Biden administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal for the Department of Homeland Security.” On the docket for the meeting was testimony from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Arizona Freshman Representative Eli Crane sat on this committee and had a chance to question Mayorkas.
Representative Crane didn’t mince words and he didn’t leave anyone in doubt as to his true feelings about the Biden Administration’s policies at the border. Directing the full weight of his comments to Secretary Mayorkas, who was sitting directly in front of the dais in the committee room, Crane said, “Sir, you said in your opening statements that you’re attacking cartels and smugglers in an unequivocal way. You most certainly are not, sir. As a matter of fact, if they were in this room right now, the heads of these cartels, you know what they’d tell us? They’d say, ‘hey, reelect these guys again and by all means keep that guy right in his seat because he’s our MVP. He’s making it so easy for us to smuggle drugs, smuggle people, get gangs into this country, distract our Border Patrol agents, and at the same time, destroy the U.S. economy.’ So you’re not doing a good job, sir.”
Secretary Mayorkas is the MVP for the Mexican cartels.
As long as he's the head of DHS, the cartels have an easy time smuggling drugs, engaging in sex trafficking, emboldening gangs, distracting U.S. Border Patrol agents, and destroying our economy. https://t.co/i4PPpBF1rX
Crane then used this scathing, yet respectful and measured, lecture to reiterate his support for Articles of Impeachment against the DHS Secretary, which so far have been drafted by fellow Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs. Earlier this year, Congressman Biggs re-filed the Articles after first introducing the action in August 2021. In a press release announcing his re-introduction of the Articles, Biggs said, “It’s clear Secretary Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His conduct is willful and intention. He is not enforcing the law and is violating his oath of office. For these reasons, Secretary Mayorkas should be impeached.”
Biggs and Crane aren’t the only Members of Congress on the track towards tougher action against Mayorkas. Back in November 2022, Kevin McCarthy, now the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, stated, “His actions have produced the great wave of illegal immigration in recorded history. That is why today I am calling on the secretary to resign. He cannot and must not remain in that position. If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.”
Just six months into Fiscal Year 2023, border officials have apprehended 1,223,067 illegal aliens at the southern border, including 191,899 in March (the most-recent month of information) – a little over half the numbers for the entirety of Fiscal Year 2022 (2,378,944). These apprehensions also do not take into account the number of ‘gotaways,’ which is a term for illegal aliens who escape detection by border officials and fade into countless American communities.
In February, Congressman Crane visited the southern border in El Paso, Texas, with members of the House Homeland Security Committee. Crane’s office publicized that the congressional delegation “witnessed a drug bust in real time, highlighting the severe drug trafficking issue plaguing our nation and the failure of the Biden Administration to disincentivize smugglers.” Crane said that the Biden Administration’s abandonment of the American people at the border was “a dereliction of duty” and “a betrayal of the American people they swore to protect.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) filed impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday.
In a press release, Biggs accused Mayorkas of intentional dereliction of duty and committing crimes against the nation.
“Secretary Mayorkas is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border. His policies have incentivized more than 5 million illegal aliens to show up at our southern border—an all-time figure,” said Biggs. “Instead of enforcing the laws on the books and deporting or detaining these illegal aliens, the vast majority of them are released into the interior and never heard from again.”
Biggs also claimed that Mayorkas was facilitating drug trafficking by stalling border wall construction and pulling law enforcement away from the border.
“His conduct is willful and intentional. He is not enforcing the law and is violating his oath of office,” said Biggs.
Today I am filing impeachment articles against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
I have a congressional responsibility to impeach figures who are in dereliction of their duties and commit crimes.
If we don't impeach him, his attack on this nation will continue.
Biggs was joined by 28 legislators, including fellow Arizona Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02), Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09), and Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08).
Other legislators that cosponsored the resolution were: Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-SC-03), Mary Miller (R-IL-15), Ralph Norman (R-SC-05), Michael Cloud (R-TX-27), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14), Lauren Boebert (R-CO-03), Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), Bill Posey (R-FL-08), Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01), Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09), Nancy Mace (R-SC-01), Claudia Tenney (R-NY-24), Brian Babin (R-TX-36), Matt Rosendale (R-MT-02), Troy Nehls (R-TX-22), Ryan Zinke (R-MT-01), Randy Weber (R-TX-14), Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06), Pat Fallon (R-TX-04), Greg Steube (R-FL-17), Ronny Jackson (R-TX-13), and Kevin Hern (R-OK-01).
This resolution is the latest in Biggs’ ongoing effort to impeach Mayorkas since 2021. In an op-ed last March, Biggs outlined how Mayorkas contravened federal law.
Awaiting illegal immigrants on the U.S. side of the border are bus stops, portable toilets, washing stations, relief workers, water and food, and more. Foreigners who break the law are rewarded under Mayorkas, Biggs argued.
However, Mayorkas worked hard to target and punish American citizens who refused executive dictates and guidance on COVID-19.
Under the Biden administration, border numbers are at an all-time high across the board. Over 4.6 million illegal immigrants were apprehended at the border as of December, with over 1.2 million “gotaways” estimated. At this rate, there may be over 9.2 million illegal immigrants by the end of Biden’s first term in 2024. The Biden administration’s current policy usually results in catch and release for most of these illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigrants aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the Biden administration’s border policy: terrorists have benefitted as well. There were seven times more terrorists apprehended at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, and more than double apprehended in this current fiscal year, than in all the years of Trump’s administration combined.
Drug trafficking is also at an all-time high. This has led to a surge in fentanyl overdoses and deaths in border states like Arizona.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
