Governor Brad Little visited Coeur d’Alene today to highlight takeaways from his briefing and aerial tour of the Texas-Mexico border two weeks ago and to announce additional steps his administration is taking to fight fentanyl.
“Drug cartels, not Americans, are controlling access into our country. Drug cartels are taking advantage of the chaos at the border to smuggle more fentanyl and other deadly drugs into our communities. The federal government’s open border policies incentivize mass illegal immigration and cartel activity along the border. Our country is experiencing a level of global migration into our country at a rate we cannot come close to keeping up with,” Governor Little said.
Governor Little joined nine fellow governors for a briefing at the border in late May. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Military Department, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas Border Czar participated in a border security briefing with the governors and provided on-the-ground intelligence about the border crisis.
During the Texas briefing, Governor Little received an overview of Texas’ comprehensive Operation Lone Star border security mission and an explanation of the effective tools and strategies the State of Texas has utilized to deter and repel illegal immigration along the southern border. Governor Abbott recognized the states of Idaho and Florida for sending assistance to Texas. Since then, additional states have committed resources to advance Operation Lone Star. A total of 13 states are now providing more than 1,300 guardsmen and more than 230 law enforcement personnel to try to slow the flow of drugs into our country.
Governor Little announced in May he would send two teams of Idaho State Police troopers to Texas to assist and train with Texas DPS. The teams are enhancing their knowledge through varied experiences such as cross-border smuggling, human trafficking, and drug interdiction, and they will return to train other law enforcement agencies in Idaho.
Governor Little also announced today he would assemble a roundtable of legislators, law enforcement, and others in the coming weeks to discuss new ways the State of Idaho can continue to assist neighbor border states and gain additional expertise on drug interdiction in order to protect Idaho communities.
