A Pennsylvania county has ended its “sanctuary” status for illegal aliens as the nation’s fentanyl crisis has hit the community, spilling over from the United States-Mexico border.
Officials in Butler County, Pennsylvania — which has consistently voted Republican in the last few election cycles — have ended the area’s sanctuary county status that helped keep illegal aliens from being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told WTAE4 News that the decision was made as the community has been recently flooded with fentanyl arriving from the border, often with border crossers and illegal aliens.
“Our crime is not just DUIs and retail theft anymore. We have drugs,” Goldinger said. “Again, that stuff has not come from citizens that are making fentanyl in Butler County. It’s being brought here.”
Likewise, in San Francisco, California, officials are reviewing a plan to end its sanctuary city status for illegal aliens because so many illegal aliens are being charged with drug trafficking and particularly fentanyl.
Pennsylvania has seen drug overdose deaths soar in recent years. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that more than 5,100 residents of the state died in 2020 from unintentional drug overdoses — 85 percent of which were opioid-related.
Compare that figure to the fewer than 1,700 Pennsylvania residents who died from drug overdoses in 2005, indicating that over only a 15-year period, drug overdose deaths have increased by more than 220 percent.
These skyrocketing overdose deaths are not only tied to accidental overdoses but also poisonings, as law enforcement says they are finding fentanyl “in everything” from candy to vape pens.
Nationally, more than 100,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses, including tiny doses of fentanyl. Put another way, the U.S. is losing a population the size of South Bend, Indiana, every year from drugs, primarily coming across the border.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.