New Mexico senator pitches legislation that focuses on stopping fentanyl from entering the US, guns from leaving

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján is co-sponsoring legislation focused on stopping fentanyl from entering the U.S. at the Southwest border. The bill would create a new program focused on stopping people from smuggling firearms from the U.S. to Mexico.

Luján introduced the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act last week with Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Mark Kelly of Arizona. The bill would appropriate a total $5.3 billion.

“Fentanyl right now is the leading cause of death for younger people in the country 18 to 45. In New Mexico, both meth and fentanyl are the most common causes of drug overdose deaths as well,” Luján said.

In 2021, more than 56% of New Mexico’s overdose deaths involved fentanyl, according to the New Mexico Department of Health. The bill would appropriate $1 billion to increase drug interception and processing capabilities at the border.

The bill includes $300 million for extra civilian U.S. border patrol processing coordinators, $1.75 billion for additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection — or CBP — officers, border patrol agents and mission support staff, and $950 million in hiring and retention bonuses and retention-focused support services. It also would enhance criminal penalties for destroying or evading border controls.

“They are short-staffed, but in addition to staffing to current levels, what’s clear is that there’s going to be more personnel that’s needed,” Luján. “And so whether you have a conversation about CBP specifically, officers and agents on the border and interior, but you also need judges, there needs to be a support through that Department of Justice, (Department of Homeland Security) apparatus, where there also is a dramatic backlog.”

The country needs to dramatically improve screening for ingoing and outgoing traffic at the southern border, Luján said. There is very little screening of the outbound traffic right now, Luján said.

“There’s almost $300 million for disrupting outbound flow of firearms and currency, which is also a major problem in the selling of fentanyl,” Luján said. “What goes back into Mexico is money and guns.”

The border security bill would introduce new screening technology to ports of entry at the Southwest border — technology similar to what the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, uses at airports but is for vehicles and containers coming into the United States, Luján said.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-NM, introduced a package of immigration legislation in November, including the Smart Border Protection Act, which would appropriate funding for more CBP personnel, new screening technology and port-of-entry infrastructure improvements. Some of those immigration bills have been referred to House committees for markup, but none has reached the House floor.

“That technology will now also be applied to noncommercial vehicular traffic, which is going to be a game changer, considering that 95% of illicit drugs, including opioids that we are able to apprehend, come from our ports of entry,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez is critical of the Republican border bill, House Resolution 2, which would restrict the asylum process, roll back protections for migrant children and build a wall along part of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“One of the things that we need is to actually expand visas in this country,” Vasquez said. “We need to match the workforce needs that we have to grow our economy with migrants that are willing to come and work in this country.”

Cathy Cook is a news reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com