The mother of two children killed by fentanyl poisoning slammed the federal government’s extravagant support for illegal migrants in a House hearing on Tuesday.
“You talk about welcoming those crossing our border “seeking protection” — you’re welcoming drug dealers across our border!” said Rebecca Kiessling, the emotional Michigan mother of sons Caleb and Kyler, adding:
I don’t use the term “drug overdose” because this was not an overdose. This was murder. My children got fake Percocets pills] that were fentanyl. There was no Percocet in it at all. And it’s “homicide,” not “overdose.”
Her sons, Caleb, 20, and Kyler, 18, and another friend, 17-year-old Sophia Harris, died in July 2020 in a hotel room in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Kiessling said:
If we had Chinese troops lining up along our southern border with weapons aimed at our people, with weapons of mass destruction aimed at our cities, you damned well know you would do something about it. We have a weather balloon from China going across the country. Nobody died, and everybody’s freaking out about it.
But 100,000 die [Americans] every year, and nothing’s being done. Not enough is being done. Numbers are going up, not down. And you talk about [migrant] children being taken away from their parents. My children were taken away from me!
A 100,000 Americans a year — 200,000 because it’s both parents, right” — are having their children taken away from them!
This should not be politicized. It’s not about race. Fentanyl doesn’t care about race. You talk about welcoming those crossing our border “seeking protection.” You’re welcoming drug dealers across our border. You’re giving them protection. You’re not protecting our children. I’ve been in support groups on Facebook with there’s 1000s of parents who have lost their children. Everyday faces are added.
It’s dehumanizing, it’s demoralizing.
Kiessling was invited to testify by Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
In contrast, Democrats used most of their time during the hearing to call for more migration. A Democratic press statement ignored Kiessling’s testimony and said:
Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, led Committee Democrats in calling out Republicans for holding another politically charged border security hearing to attack the Administration while ignoring the clear need for comprehensive immigration reform to address the situation at the border.
Since 2021, Biden and his deputies have dismantled border protections and welcomed at least 3 million migrants — including 1 million stealthy “gotaways” — across the U.S. border. The economic inflow has helped hide the fast-rising inflow of smuggled fentanyl and other drugs that kill 100,000 Americans each year.
But neither GOP politicians nor President Joe Biden has been willing to use economic pressure on Mexico’s government to make it fight the very wealthy and heavily armed cartels that kill roughly 100,000 Americans each year.
In 2019, President Donald Trump forced Mexico to curb the inflow of migrants by threatening to throttle Mexico’s trade with U.S. companies. Business groups raged against Trump’s threat — but Mexico gave in and curbed the inflow of migrants to very low levels.
Instead of copying Trump’s diplomatic and economic pressure, White House officials and legislators in both parties now prefer to talk about other things — border chaos, refugees, cheap labor, asylum, reforms, drug interdictions, and amnesties.
Those debates and chatter look good on TV — and they do not anger the business groups that both parties consider vital to their chances of victory in 2024.
The beltway silence about diplomatic and trade pressure also helps the White House by ensuring Mexico’s continued cooperation with the quiet inflow of perhaps 600,000 more migrants before the 2024 elections.
“We are doing that which needs to be done” about drugs, Biden’s pro-migration homeland security chief told the Washington Post in January.
