>
Karine Jean-Pierre says ‘we ARE securing the border’: Defends capturing of drug traffickers as she is grilled on how Biden is going to stop ‘rainbow fentanyl’ flooding in from Mexico and the opioid crisis
- Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday defended the administration’s record on drugs and border security as she was quizzed on concerns about ‘rainbow fentanyl’
- It follows a D.E.A. warning about candy colored opioids targeted at youngsters
- ‘We are securing the border,’ she said when pressed on the issue
- And she said there had been a 200 percent increase in fentanyl seizures
- It was the latest back-and-forth with Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy this week
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday defended the administration’s record on border security and its efforts to prevent illegal drugs entering the country from Mexico.
It came as she pressed on warnings that brightly-colored ‘rainbow fentanyl’ was being brought in to target children and younger users.
‘The fact that we are securing the border, the fact that we are securing record levels of funding from [the Department of Homeland Security] so they can stop illicit drugs from entering into the country, the fact that it’s not just drug traffickers that we’re dealing with, as well we’re stopping stopping financiers … ‘ said Jean-Pierre.
‘This is what’s happening under this administration.’
A day earlier the Drug Enforcement Administration warned Americans to be on the look-out for an ’emerging trend of colorful fentanyl.’
‘Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,’ said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
‘The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States.’
The Drug enforcement Administration warned on Tuesday that candy-coloured ‘rainbow fentanyl’ arriving from Mexico was being used by cartels to target American children
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday defended the administration’s record on border security and its efforts to prevent illegal drugs entering the country
migrants traveling without adults are processed by a border patrol agent after being smuggled across the Rio Grande river into Roma, Texas
Jean-Pierre said the administration was having an impact.
‘I will say that we have seen a 200% increase of fentanyl seizures, which means that we are doing the job of catching drug traffickers,’ she said.
She was responding to questions from Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy, who had a prickly back-and-forth with her about immigration on Monday.
Doocy asked Jean-Pierre why unvaccinated migrants can come into the U.S. and stay, while Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic is banned from playing stateside due to his unvaccinated status.
‘It’s not that simple,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘It’s not just that people are walking across the border. We have a plan in place. This is not like switching the lights on. This is going to take a process. We are fixing a broken system that was actually left by the last administration.’
Jean-Pierre said of Djokovic that she couldn’t ‘discuss individual visa cases due to privacy reasons.’
‘The US government also does not comment on medical information of individual travelers,’ she added.
Djokovic will not be participating in this week’s US Open because he’s unvaccinated against COVID-19.
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic is unable to play in this week’s U.S. Open due to the fact that he’s not vaccinated against COVID-19
A group of migrants is helped over a wire fence by a member of the Texas National Guard earlier this month in Eagle Pass, Texas
A small group of migrants walk toward the U.S. Border Patrol after illegally crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas earlier this month
There remains in place a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention policy that bars unvaccinated foreign nationals from entering the United States.
‘They’re two different things,’ Jean-Pierre also said, pushing back on Doocy trying to compare migrants and Djokovic as apples-to-apples.
He scoffed when she said migrants weren’t walking into the U.S.
‘Thousands of people are walking in in a day,’ the Fox News White House correspondent responded. ‘Some of them turn themselves over, some of them – tens of thousands a week are not.’
She then articulated a number of things that Biden administration has put in place to cut back on illegal immigration.
‘And as it relates to the tennis star, that’s totally different,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘That’s a different process. That is the U.S. Open that he’s a part of. And there are CDC, federal guidance that he needs to follow.’
Jean-Pierre tried to argue that the CDC bars unvaccinated migrants coming into the country too.
‘There is a CDC provision for folks coming through the southern border. It is not just for tennis players,’ she said.