GOP Presidential Candidates Push for Military Intervention in Mexico Amid Fentanyl Crisis

GOP candidates propose military response to drug-trafficking crisis, despite evidence suggesting most fentanyl enters the US via legal ports of entry and is primarily smuggled by American citizens, not Mexican cartels.

• Republican presidential candidates are advocating for military intervention in Mexico to address the fentanyl crisis, arguing that aggressive action, including bombings, will halt drug trafficking.
• Despite GOP claims, most fentanyl is smuggled into the U.S. through legal ports of entry, and primarily by American citizens, not Mexican cartels, according to the National Immigration Forum.
• A proposal by Senator Lindsey Graham seeks to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that intensifies conservation around the subject while oversimplifying the crisis.
• Historian Greg Grandin notes that the fentanyl crisis is a bipartisan issue affecting red and blue states alike. He criticizes GOP claims of military intervention as election-season bluster, and warns further militarization may lead to corruption, more deaths, and more refugees.
• Experts argue that addressing the fentanyl crisis requires not military intervention, but a focus on improving data collection on drug seizures, prosecution, legislation restricting chemical imports, and treating addiction as a social problem.

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