(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/22/2024) Senate Republicans have introduced "The Strong Borders, Safe Communities" plan, aiming to raise penalties for fentanyl manufacturing and possession, and to prohibit municipalities in Michigan from declaring themselves as "sanctuary cities" for undocumented immigrants.
The plan, spearheaded by Republicans' 18-seat minority in the 38-seat Senate chamber, includes SB 724 by Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Brooklyn) and SB 725 by Sen. Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton). Together, the bills would ban local governments – ranging from counties to cities and villages – from enforcing policies and ordinances limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Also, SB 726 by Sen. Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills) and SB 727 by Sen. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker), makes possessing at least 1,000 grams of fentanyl – or more of any mixture containing fentanyl – with the intent to manufacture or deliver a $5 million felony, punishable by up to life in prison.
“I think we need to be proactive here in Michigan,” said Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton). "The southern border may seem like a long ways away, but President (Joe Biden's) open-door policy is hurting communities in Michigan through the scourge of fentanyl."
According to a September 2023 poll by The Economist and YouGov, using a 1,000-person American adult voter sample, 54 percent of respondents view immigration as a "very important" issue, with 39 percent of Democratic survey participants and 77 percent of Republican respondents pinning it as "very important."
When it comes to the subject of immigration, Nesbitt says the United States is a nation of immigrants, is a nation of laws and that a sovereign nation without borders cannot have its sovereignty.
"You have the new Democratic Party that's out there, (that) seems pretty intent on not having a nation with borders or with laws," Nesbitt said.
According to an October 2023 report by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, encounters with crossers at the country's Southwest border – consisting of Mexico's borderline with California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas – have increased from 1.73 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to 2.47 million in FY '23.
Although the issue of fentanyl-related deaths and unlawful crossings at the Southwest border have become intersected with one another in many conversations, a 2021 report relayed by the Cato At Liberty blog published that 86.3 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers that year were American citizens.
Each bill introduced today was referred to Sen. Stephanie CHANG (D-Detroit)'s Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Civil Rights Committee. While speaking to members of the media this afternoon, Chang said at first glance, it "definitely appears that…the minority party is politicking and trying to again sort of promote this false notion around the migrant crisis."
"I think everyone agrees that there is a crisis, but I think what's not helpful is misinformation or stereotyping folks or somehow linking (the) drug crisis to the border," Chang said. "We know that actually, in fact, many of the drugs that cross the border cross through actually our ports of entry, not with the people that they're talking about."
Another piece of Senate Republicans' plan is SR 98 by Sen. Joseph Bellino JR. (R-Monroe), a resolution denouncing Biden’s border policy.
His resolution spotlights how since February 2021, the earliest full month of Biden's presidency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has had more than 100,000 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southwest border. Bellino said his resolution would condemn the national security and public safety crisis taking place and would urge Biden to end its "open border policies that have allowed fentanyl to saturate our nation and take too many of my friends' lives."
Currently, the national media is covering how in Washington, D.C., Biden is debating whether to invoke a 1952 law allowing U.S. presidents to "suspend the entry" of foreigners when it is decided their arrival is not in the best interest of the country, CBS News reports based on insights from three anonymous sources.
