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Sen. Mark Warner has filed a bill designed to stop fentanyl from being trafficked into the country. Labeled the “Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act’, the bill increases staffing capacity for Border Patrol, while also raising their funding so they can buy more technology to to detect the illicit drugs and contraband being smuggled at the southern border. 

“Families and communities across the Commonwealth have been devastated by the spread of fentanyl,” Sen. Warner said in a statement. “This legislation will help our law enforcement officers at the border stop the flow of fentanyl into this country by providing personnel and equipment needed to secure our border.”  

Specifically, the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act would enable U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire more officers and Border Patrol agents to increase capacity to stop illicit smuggling over the border. The bill also provides funding to purchase non-intrusive inspection systems, which scan vehicles and cargo at the border to provide detailed images of their interiors, which leads to the detection of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.

Additionally, the bill would create an inspection program to increase seizure of firearms being exported from the United States to Mexico, which criminal organizations frequently purchase in the United States and smuggle into Mexico to support their fentanyl production operations and other violent criminal enterprises.  

Stop fentanyl at the border

More than 1,500 Americans per week die from taking some type of opioid, making the drug the leading cause of fatal overdoses. In recent years, the crisis has become defined by fentanyl, which is an extremely lethal synthetic opioid. Fentanyl supplies are largely produced in China and Mexico and then smuggled into the United States.

This legislation comes after Warner placed a call to President Joe Biden, asking him to prioritize additional resources to strengthen security at the border.