Gem State Wire

Attorney General of Idaho Raul Labrador (R) joined more than two dozen state attorneys general in signing a letter to President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Security Aljandro Mayorkas in support of “Governor Abbott’s efforts to secure our border.” 

“Governor Abbott’s efforts to secure our border, and Attorney General Paxton’s work defending those efforts, must be supported rather than opposed,” said the letter. “We are a nation of laws. And without a border, we would quickly cease to be a nation at all.”

“Texas’s efforts to support the border do not violate the recent Supreme Court order in Department of Homeland Security v. Texas,” said the letter. “Further, States have an independent duty to defend against invasion.”

“Finally, the crisis at the border requires the Executive Branch to enforce the law,” said the letter.

Labrador joined attorneys general from Arizona, Iowa, Utah, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming in signing the letter. 

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector last week reported that two illegal aliens with "alarming felony convictions" were apprehended at the Arizona-Mexico border, and enough fentanyl was seized to kill a potential 453,592 people, reported Tucson Standard.

The chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma Sector reported that a border patrol agent was assaulted with rocks last Tuesday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that total encounters with illegal aliens along the Southeast border equaled a record 302,034. 

In addition to illegal aliens, 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the U.S. southern border in 2023, reported CBP. 

One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The amount of fentanyl seized at the border in 2023, therefore, has the potential to kill approximately 6.12 billion people.