Are migrants responsible for fentanyl in North Texas? Here’s what US border officials say

In Reality Check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? RealityCheck@star-telegram.com.

When Fort Worth area leaders talk about how the immigration crisis has affected their communities, the hot-button issue of fentanyl repeatedly rises to the top.

According to Southlake Mayor John Huffman, who visited the border with Keller Mayor Armin Mizani in November, undocumented immigrants are bringing fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the country between ports of entry.

“That’s demonstrably true,” Huffman said in a phone interview. “You can ask anybody in border patrol.”

Mizani said that the purpose of his visit to the border was to “witness firsthand how the border crisis directly impacts communities like Keller.” For him, it was “a sobering reminder that despite being hundreds or thousands of miles away from the southern border, every city in Texas and every city in America has now become a border city.”

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has also told the Star-Telegram that the “plethora of drugs” in the county is one way that the immigration crisis is affecting local communities. Waybourn made his statement after hosting a press conference for U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, who cited anecdotal evidence about undocumented immigrants and crime to promote a bill he had introduced.

What do border officials say about who is bringing drugs into the United States?

Both Huffman and Mizani cited the U.S. Border Patrol as supporting their claims that migrants are bringing fentanyl and other illegal drugs across the border.

But U.S. citizens actually top the list of fentanyl smugglers caught at the border, according to Homeland Security officials, who spoke to U.S. representatives in a subcommittee hearing last July on who is bringing fentanyl across the border.

Nearly three-fourths of those caught attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the United States since October 2022 were U.S. citizens, and they brought in more than half of all fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities, the officials said.

Mexican nationals made up for the rest of those caught smuggling fentanyl, but these were not migrants. The Homeland Security official said migrants accounted for “a very small percentage” of those caught attempting to smuggle fentanyl across the border.

Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection also belie the claim that migrants are drug smugglers. The Border Patrol is the law enforcement arm that secures the border between ports of entry, also known as international bridges.

“More than 90 percent of fentanyl seized by CBP is trafficked in cars and trucks through ports of entry,” said CBP spokesperson Roger Maier in an email exchange.

He referred the Star-Telegram to the CBP’s drug seizure statistics that are available online, which can be broken down into seizures by the Office of Field Operations at ports of entry and seizures by the Border Patrol along the border in between them.

In the 2023 fiscal year, which runs from October to September, CBP agents confiscated 175,000 pounds of drugs at ports of entry, while Border Patrol agents confiscated 65,000. Fentanyl accounted for nearly 24,000 pounds of the drugs seized at ports of entry, and less than 3,000 in between them.

In the current fiscal year so far, the Office of Field Operations has confiscated 6,800 pounds of fentanyl, while the Border Patrol has seized 1,200 pounds.

“It’s very pathetic that some politicians are using migrants as political fodder in blaming them for the fentanyl crisis, which is an absolute falsehood,” said Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

While there have been a few cases of people walking across the border with fentanyl-laden backpacks, Vigil said, that method is not sufficient to meet the demand for the drug north of the border.

“They have to move fentanyl in mass in large quantities to satisfy that demand here in the United States,” Vigil said, seconding what Homeland Security told Congress: “Most of them that are driving the fentanyl over into the United States are American citizens.”

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