Ashley Moody Demands Biden Confront Mexican President on Fentanyl Crisis: ‘Fight for the American People’
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody demanded that President Joe Biden confront Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on the fentanyl crisis during next week’s meeting in Mexico City.
“President Biden must not squander this opportunity to demand accountability from Mexico for its role in the deadly fentanyl crisis that is claiming record numbers of American lives,” Moody said.
“Biden is 0–2 in previous meetings, but now has an opportunity to hold President Obrador’s feet to the fire and force cooperation in the dismantling of fentanyl production and distribution centers operated by the Mexican drug cartels,” Moody said.
Mexico and China both play massive roles in the growing fentanyl crisis claiming record numbers of American lives every year, the Attorney Generals Office said. The office said Biden failed to demand accountability and cooperation during past meetings with both Obrador and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The White House announced Biden’s agenda ahead of his visit to Mexico City which included “climate and the environment, migration, diversity and inclusion and increasing North America’s economic competitiveness,” but did not mention the fentanyl crisis. Biden added on Thursday that he will also discuss strengthening the border between the U.S. and Mexico with Obrador.
“Before you meet, I demand that you consider all the American families who just endured the holiday season after losing a loved one to a drug overdose—there are thousands of them,” Moody wrote in her letter to Biden.
Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans ages 18-45. The Drug Enforcement Administration announced they seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl in 2022 which is enough to kill every man, woman and child in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more than 108,000 drug overdose deaths during a 12-month span ending in Feb. 2022.
According to Moody, these statistics could potentially increase as a result of the “chaos” at the nation’s border with Mexico.
On Monday, Moody’s team of attorneys will take the Biden Administration to court over unlawful immigration policies such as “the intentional dismantling of the public safety immigration structures fueling the border chaos and fentanyl crisis.”
“Since President Biden took office, he has intentionally dismantled public-safety immigration structures, allowing chaos to reign at our nation’s Southwest Border, and letting unvetted, inadmissible immigrants—along with dangerous individuals and deadly drugs like fentanyl—into our country. Biden’s actions are beyond irresponsible and put Americans at risk. Now, because of our litigation, the president must defend his reckless actions and refusal to follow the law in a federal courtroom,” Moody said.
According to the complaint, since March 2021, U.S. Border Patrol has released approximately one million immigrants at the Southwest Border, including as many as 105,000 in a single month. To compare, in the last month of the Trump administration, only 17 were released.
Border crossings reportedly topped 2.76 million, breaking previous record. Border Patrol encountered nearly 100 people on the terrorist watchlist in fiscal year 2022, a 276 percent increase when compared to the past five years combined.
According to the White House, Biden will travel to Mexico City on Jan. 9 for a two-day summit with President Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Additionally, the Biden administration confirmed that Biden will visit the nation’s border with Mexico on Sunday, after two years of demands from Moody and other national leaders.
