Officials in Texas say they have prevented more than 504 million lethal doses of fentanyl hitting U.S. streets over the past three years.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas National Guard have confiscated more than half a billion doses of the deadly opioid since the 2021 launch of Operation Lone Star, a joint operation between the DPS and the Texas Military Department to combat illegal immigration on the southern border.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abbott said: "Texas has seized over HALF A BILLION doses of deadly fentanyl under Operation Lone Star. That's enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States and Mexico—COMBINED."
Officials add that since Operation Lone Star began, there have been 514,500 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 44,300 criminal arrests resulting in more than 38,700 felony charges.
The data was published as Abbott and Biden continue to clash on how best to control the southern border amid the fentanyl crisis and record breaking illegal migrant crossings.
In a statement, Abbott's office said that "every ounce of drugs" seized by Texas' officials would have otherwise continued into Texas and across the nation due to Biden's "open border" policies.
Abbott has long raged a battle against fentanyl. Last July, the governor launched a Texas fentanyl data dashboard to allow Texans access to data on how fentanyl-related deaths occur in the state.
"More than five Texans die every day from deadly fentanyl, and Texas continues to ramp up our efforts to combat the growing fentanyl crisis plaguing our state and the nation," Abbott said. "Texans must come together to raise awareness of this deadly opioid to our family, friends, and communities, and the data published on this website will help Texans lead the fight against this deadly drug."
Abbott also recently hit out at the president's proposed plans to allow undocumented immigrants with U.S. spouses to work in the country legally while they seek citizenship. The move was seen as a way for Biden to win over Latino voters ahead of November's election against Donald Trump.
"President Biden's mass amnesty announcement is blatantly illegal and is a desperate pandering for votes in his failing reelection bid," Abbott, a staunch Trump supporter, said in a statement.
"President Biden's amnesty proposal, just like President Obama's DAPA and DACA proposals, will be stricken down by the courts for a simple reason: it is Congress, not the President, that has the authority to make or change immigration laws.
"Rather than solving the border crisis he caused, President Biden's mass amnesty will be another magnet to attract migrants to flood across our border illegally. President Biden needs to stop rewriting immigration law and start enforcing it."
The White House has been connected for comment via email.
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
