AUSTIN, Texas — A new television ad released by Gov. Greg Abbott targets his Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke over comments that the border was not in crisis despite America’s worsening fentanyl epidemic.
Abbott’s latest video attacking O’Rourke debuted Tuesday and comes six weeks ahead of the election as the incumbent seeks a third and final term in Austin. Abbott’s campaign has focused heavily on how vulnerable the southern border has become as, it said, a result of the Biden administration ending Trump-era immigration policies.
The 30-second ad shows two Texas sheriffs, one from a Dallas suburb and another from a rural border county, explain how fentanyl is making its way into U.S. communities, then pivots to a comment O’Rourke made in November 2021 that the border was a “problem we do not have.”
“There’s a clear and present danger in neighborhoods like this. It’s deadly fentanyl, and it’s killing our kids. How’s it getting here?” said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
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“Right here, through our border,” said Zapata County Sheriff Ray Del Bosque.
State and local police deployed as part of Abbott’s border security effort, Operation Lone Star, have seized enough fentanyl to kill millions of Americans from smugglers who snuck across the border at ports of entry.
Ninety percent of fentanyl seized by U.S. border officials in fiscal 2021 was intercepted at the ports of entry hidden on body carriers and inside passenger vehicles.
The fentanyl that gets through may be found during traffic stops on Texas highways as it is transported across the U.S. From there, the man-made synthetic opioid substance is dispersed to drug dealers in major cities and trickles down to local sellers and users.
As an indication of how much fentanyl has slipped through, U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 45 years old are now more likely to die from consuming fentanyl than they are to die as the result of a car crash, the coronavirus, a heart attack, suicide, or a terrorist attack. Fentanyl overdoses were a driving force behind the record-high 100,000 overdose deaths last year.
Abbott has linked the fentanyl epidemic with illegal immigration, making both issues leading messages in his bid this November. Last week, Abbott signed an order that labeled Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations. He is in month six of busing immigrants released into Texas border communities to major U.S cities that are “sanctuary zones” in an effort to ease pressure on Border Patrol and local officials.
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O’Rourke, who Republicans have dubbed an “open borders” advocate, told attendees at a political symposium last weekend that Texans he spoke with on the campaign trail “believe very strongly that if you want to come to this country, you must follow the law.” The former Democratic presidential candidate said noncitizens should be able to seek asylum at the border, a process that under the Biden administration has resulted in more than 1 million people released into the interior of the United States before proving they meet asylum standards.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls conducted in August and September showed Abbott had an 8 percentage-point lead over O’Rourke.
