17 Feb Trump, NH politicians clash over whether wall will stop flow of drugs | National
When President Trump announced Friday that he was declaring a national emergency in order to reroute federal funding to build a wall at the southern border, one of his primary arguments was that the new structure would stem the flow of drugs from Mexico into the United States.
“We’ve got to get rid of drugs and gangs and people. It’s an invasion,” the President said. “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country that we stop, but it’s very hard to stop. With a wall, it would be very easy.”
New Hampshire State Police declined to comment on whether a wall would reduce the amount of fentanyl entering New Hampshire.
In an interview prior to Trump’s announcement, New Hampshire U.S. Attorney Scott Murray said most of the heroin and fentanyl in New Hampshire originates in Mexico, but is trafficked here by organizations based in the Dominican Republic.
“What you’re dealing with is a connection with the Dominican Republic, which is where the command and control center is, for lack of a better term,” Murray said.
“You have people in the Dominican Republic and Lawrence (Mass.) dealing with drug cartels in Mexico and making arrangements to have the fentanyl and heroin shipped in.”
New Hampshire’s all-Democratic congressional delegation quickly criticized Trump’s national emergency declaration, both for setting a bad precedent and actively harming drug enforcement.
“In the midst of an opioid drug epidemic and national health emergency that’s claiming over 70,000 lives a year, President Trump is diverting money from drug interdiction in order to erect a costly and ineffective border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said in a tweet.
Roughly $2.5 billion of the $8 billion the President hopes to use for the wall would come from a Pentagon program aimed at combating drug trafficking.
“President Trump is proposing taking money from our military and critical drug apprehension efforts to construct an unnecessary, medieval wall to fulfill a campaign promise,” Rep. Annie Kuster said in a statement. “Nearly 90 percent of illicit narcotics cross the border through ports of entry and President Trump is proposing taking billions of dollars from drug interdiction efforts. That is nonsensical.”
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