Sen. Tim Scott Looks To Crack Down On Illegal Immigration In Effort To Stop Fentanyl Flow
According to Breitbart News, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) is reintroducing a bill that would let the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) move in a quicker manner to remove illegal immigrants from the United States due to the fentanyl epidemic that is crippling the nation.
The piece of legislation, known as the Alan Shao II Fentanyl Public Health Emergency and Overdose Prevention Act, takes several approaches in helping to stop this deadly epidemic which Scott attributes to the Joe Biden administration.
“The former president left a disaster on our southern border that infected communities and families across our nation,” Sen. Scott said in an interview with Breitbart News. The Republican senator is also hoping that this bill will remain in effect once Donald Trump’s term ends.
Scott also detailed to the outlet how this legislation is personal for him. “A couple of years ago, my friend Alan Shao lost his son to the crisis curated by the Biden administration’s open border policies. This legislation is named in honor of his son to remind us that one life lost is one too many and that we can’t continue to sit idly by allowing devastation to rip through our homes,” he explained.
Breakdown Of Scott’s Bill
This legislation would seek to expedite the removal process of illegal immigrants who are trying to gain entrance into the United States from both the southern and northern borders. The quickened removal process would also apply to those who don’t have the correct travel documents for entry into the U.S., or those who are held at a point of entry or Border Patrol facility.
Scott’s bill is also similar to Title 42, which Donald Trump used during his first term as president to stop the mass influx of illegal immigrants into the country. President Joe Biden stopped Title 42, but before that it permitted DHS to quickly remove illegal immigrants from the country.
In 2024, 367 million doses of fentanyl were collected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the agency. Over 100,000 U.S. citizens died from a drug overdose in 2023. Most of those overdoses were from fentanyl. As a leading senator in working to stop illegal immigration and the smuggling of drugs into the country, Tim Scott has been persistent in introducing several bills related to this issue. In addition to the Alan T. Shao II Fentanyl Public Health Emergency and Overdose Prevention Act, he’s also introduced the Securing Our Border Act. That bill seeks to provide more funds for border security. The Stifling Transnational Operations and Proliferators by Mitigating Activities that Drive Narcotics, Exploitation, and Smuggling Sanctions Act (the STOP MADNESS Act) is also legislation that Scott worked to introduce which would place sanctions on foreign governments who refuse to repatriate any of their citizens who illegally enter the U.S. And while Tim Scott is a Republican, he’s enjoyed bipartisan support for another bill that sought to stop fentanyl from crossing the border into the United States. This legislation was signed into law in 2024 and is called the FEND Off Fentanyl Act. “I am grateful to lead efforts to put an end to this public health crisis and clean up our border,” the senator said. “I look forward to working with the Trump administration to ensure more Americans can live in a safer nation.” Scott’s work on this issue is likely far from done. There will be more efforts from the senator and his allies in the Senate to put an end to fentanyl smuggling into America.
