Americans broadly support imposing the death penalty on those caught smuggling drugs or people into the US – policies touted by former President Donald Trump in his bid to regain the White House.
A staggering 58 percent of American adults say drug traffickers and people should face the ultimate punishment, according to our DailyMail.com/TIPP poll, a sign of growing alarm over uncontrolled migration and cross-border flows of fentanyl.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, released a campaign proposal last month to punish traffickers with the death penalty, his latest hard-on crime policy in his re-election campaign.
Back in the White House, he would end Democratic President Joe Biden’s “border nightmare,” which smugglers use to exploit vulnerable women and children,” Trump said in a campaign video.
Lethal injections are used in executions in the border states of Texas and Arizona, and in federal cases
A Trump policy resonates with millions of Americans concerned about drugs and immigration
“I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border immediately faces the death penalty,” he added.
Trump has also been calling for the death penalty against drug traffickers, smugglers and dealers since last year as the US battles an opioid crisis that will kill nearly 110,000 people by 2022.
“The penalties should be very, very severe,” Trump told a Washington DC think tank last year.
“If you look at countries all over the world, those who don’t have a drug problem are the ones who have a very swift death penalty for drug dealers.”
While too extreme for most Democrats and many of those also seeking the Republican nomination, Trump’s harsh sentences for narcotics and human trafficking resonate with millions of voters.
They highlight broader concerns about two issues: the large numbers of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border from Mexico, and a drug epidemic that affects nearly every family in the US.
Illegal crossings along the U.S. southern border are up more than 30 percent in July, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Washington Post earlier this month.
Last month’s more than 130,000 border arrests marked an increase from 99,545 in June — a blow to President Biden’s new immigration strategy that was put in place as pandemic-era enforcement rules came to an end.
Undocumented migrants hired freelance “coyotes” to enter the US, but that has evolved into a multibillion-dollar business run by organized crime, including some of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels.
Trump admits policy ‘sounds horrible’ but says it’s the only way to end drug scourge
Most Republicans and Democrats support the harshest sentences, our poll shows
A ‘coyote’ smuggler (right) escorts an inflatable boat illegally transporting migrants from Mexico to the US to seek asylum, on the Rio Grande River
Those same groups have been linked to the manufacture of fentanyl and other drugs that are smuggled into the US, whose deadly power leaves a trail of destruction across the country.
Drug deaths nationwide hit a new record in 2022, with 109,680 lives as the fentanyl crisis worsened, according to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Synthetic opioids — mostly fentanyl — now kill more Americans each year than died in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined.
Mexican cartels import chemical precursors from China and India and squeeze fentanyl into hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills every day. They often resemble branded drugs such as Xanax, Percocet or oxycodone.
The pills are smuggled across the border to supply drug addicts in the US, including the homeless users who stumble on the streets of San Francisco, New York and other major cities.
Against this background, the execution of the drug and people smugglers behind the trade is generally popular – supported by most Americans, with a third saying they “strongly agree” with the harshest sentence.
Republican voters are the most enthusiastic about the proposal — 69 percent support the death penalty for those convicted of drug and people-smuggling offenses. Even a solid 54 percent majority of Democrats agree with them.
While a president can spotlight policy debates and pressure politicians, changing the sentencing rules for convicts would require the support of Congress and state legislatures responsible for most drug prosecutions.