Greene invokes Harris ‘to end the death and destruction’ and ‘do her job’ over fentanyl in GA

ATLANTA — Georgia. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is joining the chorus of House Republicans to pin issues over the Southern border on Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Three hundred Americans are killed every day by the fentanyl being smuggled across our Southern border,” Greene said.

In a video she posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Greene said that fentanyl overdose deaths in the counties that make up Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which she represents, have risen over 350% between 2019 and 2022.

“When will Kamala Harris do her job and secure the border to end the death and destruction?” she said in her post.

President Joe Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to lead the White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the southern border and work with Central American nations to address the root causes of the problem.

It’s important to note, that most of the time frame that Greene is alluding to was under former President Donald Trump’s administration.

Harris was never appointed the “border czar,” or put in charge of border security or halting illegal border crossings, as former President Donald Trump, Republicans have claimed.

“She was tasked with developing a long-term policy framework rather than creating a short-term political performance project,” said Chris Newman, the legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Harris’ backers say she demonstrated leadership by leveraging her stature to win investments that might curb migration years down the road.

“She felt — and I think she was right — that what she could do the most was help basically lead the effort to draw in investment, using the confidence that a relationship with the White House would give to investors,” said Ricardo Zúniga, a former State Department official who specialized in the Northern Triangle and who traveled with Harris to the region.

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Regardless of whether Greene’s comment was meant to make a political point, the congresswoman is correct in saying there is an opioid epidemic impacting not only Georgia but the whole country.

As we previously reported, From 1999 to 2022, the Georgia Department of Public Health said 6,588 people have died from synthetic opioid overdoses.

Nearly every year since 1999, the number of overdoses in Georgia has gone up, to the point where in 2022, more than 60% of all overdose deaths in Georgia were said to be from those same synthetic opioids, according to the DPH’s OASIS database and additional data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s data shows there were 2,687 overdose deaths in Georgia in 2022. About 64% were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

OASIS data from Georgia shows 1,717 of those overdose deaths were from synthetic opioids other than methadone, specifically noting fentanyl as the example drug.

By comparison, in 2012, the year the opioid crisis in America is reported to have started, Georgia had just 56 synthetic opioid deaths, OASIS data shows.

As of January 2023, Georgia had a predicted 2,649 opioid overdose deaths, CDC data showed. In January of 2024, that number fell slightly to 2,510. The CDC shows yearly totals in January, rather than reporting numbers as of December.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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