CBP head: More than 50,000 pounds of fentanyl seized border-wide over the last 2 years

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller was at the Arizona-Mexico border in Nogales in Thursday, briefing media on fentanyl seizures and other border enforcement measures.

Miller told reporters CBP has seized 50,000 pounds of fentanyl over the last two years — including a historic seizure in August of roughly 4 million pills at the Lukeville Port of Entry.

He said a handful of specialized screening machines were installed at the Nogales ports of entry earlier this year.

“Right here, where we’re seeing the most fentanyl in the nation, we’re doing 50% of all cargo being screened by non-intrusive inspection technology, we’re doing enhanced operations right behind you every single day,” he said.

CBP data shows the vast majority of fentanyl smuggling along the border is done by U.S. citizens coming through ports of entry. Screening machines are currently active in bus, cargo and vehicle crossing lines in Nogales. And Miller said more are on the way next year.

Public health data this year shows a decline in fentanyl overdose deaths nationwide for the first time in years. Miller said some 13,600 pounds of fentanyl and roughly 14,600 pounds of meth was intercepted at Arizona ports of entry in the last fiscal year, which ended Oct. 1.

Guadalupe Ramirez, director of field operations for CBP’s Tucson Field Office, said port personnel intercepted similar loads during the 2023 fiscal year.

So it’s down by just a little on the fentanyl and it’s up a little bit on the meth,” he said. “Whereas, last year, it was probably the other way around, you had 14,000 pounds of fentanyl and 13,000 or 12,000 pounds of meth.”

Miller also discussed migration enforcement measures between crossings. He said the number of migrants arrested between ports of entry in Arizona is down by more than 50% since May.

“We have removed more people in the last year than we have any year since 2010,” he said. “We've increased expedited removal, which is a more extreme consequence, by 85%.”

A policy enacted by the Biden administration in June bars most migrants arrested by the Border Patrol from asking for asylum. Instead, they’re sent back to Mexico or their home countries and prohibited from seeking protection in the U.S. for several years. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin says roughly 380 people are being apprehended in his sector now, a sharp decline from a high of more than 2,300 daily apprehensions in December.

A lawsuit filed by the ACLU and other rights groups argues the measure goes against international refugee protection treaties and U.S. immigration law, which guarantees the right to seek asylum to anyone on U.S. soil, even those not at a port of entry.

Most asylum seekers able to enter the U.S. now must do so through the Biden administration’s CBP One app — which allots a fixed 1,450 appointments at a handful of ports of entry border-wide everyday. A September report found roughly 100 of those appointments are processed in Nogales every day, and asylum seekers are waiting to secure spot for up to nine months.