Exclusive — Rebecca Kleefisch: Epidemic Number of Overdoses in Wisconsin Is ‘Owed Directly’ to Border Crisis

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) vowed during an interview with Breitbart News Saturday to put more police officers on the streets of Wisconsin to help combat a rise in drug overdoses if she is elected governor.

Kleefisch spoke specifically about fentanyl, a highly potent opioid that is manufactured illegally, primarily in Mexico and China, and is a leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.

“Fentanyl is coming across our border in a way we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Kleefisch, who served as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin alongside Gov. Scott Walker (R) for two terms until 2019. During that time, Kleefisch was appointed cochair of the governor’s task force on opioid abuse.

“Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs, and it is a killer,” Kleefisch asserted. “The epidemic number of overdoses that we see across Wisconsin is owed directly to the crisis at our border.”

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Drug overdoses are on the rise in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 100,000 overdose deaths occurred in a 12-month period through November of last year, and synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, contributed to most of those deaths, or about 80,000 of them.

In another indication of the growing danger of fentanyl, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 11,201 pounds of the powerful drug at the border in fiscal year (FY) 2021, which is more than double the amount seized in FY 2020 and about four times the amount seized in FY 2019. FY 2022 is on pace with last year’s surge, showing seizures of 5,310 pounds in its first six months.

Law enforcement officials, Kleefisch said, have informed her “that 95 percent of our illicit drugs in Wisconsin are coming up over that border, and those drugs are killing our friends and neighbors. … Our cities all have a problem with drugs, and those drug cartels pass those drugs up over the Mexican border to our American drug gangs, go through our freeway systems, which leads directly to the people of Wisconsin. We’ve got to shut this down.”

Kleefisch, who is hoping to unseat Gov. Tony Evers (D) in this year’s midterms, said she is “law enforcement’s choice for governor.”

The Wisconsin Republican noted the weighty endorsements she has received from the law enforcement sector, including from the Milwaukee Police Association, the Kenosha Police Association, the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police, and more than half of the state’s sheriffs.

In terms of her action plan, Kleefisch said southern border control is a priority. “You do it by just going around the federal government, by doing what the Republican governors are doing,” she said, adding she would join onto the newly formed American Governor’s Border Strike Force with most other Republican governors if she were elected to office.

Kleefisch said she would also bolster police presence in the Badger State by adding 1,000 more officers to the state’s police force.

“Even after you shut down that type of drug trade, you need to shut down the selling of drugs. You need to shut down the human trafficking where it’s already happening and where it’s spreading,” Kleefisch said. “That means we need more cops on the streets.”

Kleefisch’s comments on tackling drug abuse come as she has made the broader issue of crime a focus of her campaign. Her positions stand in contrast to those of Evers, who gained a reputation in 2020 for sympathizing with Black Lives Matter protesters and rioters, some of whom pushed aggressive anti-police sentiments and ravaged Wisconsin’s small city of Kenosha.

“Tony Evers’ rhetoric has discouraged people who stand on the thin blue line every single day,” Kleefisch said. She added that Evers “would rather pander to far fringes of the woke left than he would protect the communities of the state of Wisconsin.”