Former Senator Kelly Ayotte (R), now running for governor in New Hampshire, is sounding the alarm over record-setting illegal immigration at the nation’s northeast border which she says has gone entirely ignored by President Joe Biden’s administration.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125’s Breitbart News Saturday, Ayotte said illegal immigration and drug trafficking are so out of control at the United States-Canada border that residents are dealing first-hand with the issue.
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“I was up in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, which is the northernmost part of New Hampshire. I met this farm owner up there, she’s got a great family farm, raising her children, it’s a beautiful place, it should be idyllic,” Ayotte said.
“[The farm] borders Canada. They intercepted drugs, her and her husband. There was a drug drop on her property and bear in mind, they’ve owned this property for decades and this is now becoming a huge problem under the Biden administration,” Ayotte continued. “… she’s worried about her kids. She knows that there are illegal immigrants, they’ve come on her property, and you know, they’re armed — they have to be.”
GOP New Hampshire Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte greets supporters at her election night party at the Grappone Convention Center on November 9, 2016, in Concord, New Hampshire. (Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images)
Ayotte noted that in the Swanton Sector of the northeast border, which includes New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, there have been more than 6,100 illegal aliens captured crossing the border from 76 different countries.
The figure indicates that there have been more illegal aliens caught at the northeast border in the last 11 months than there have been in the prior 10 years combined.
“They’ve literally arrested more in the last 11 months than they had in the last 10 years prior. And the people they’ve arrested … are from 76 different countries,” Ayotte said. “These aren’t Canadians coming over because they want to get New Hampshire maple syrup.”
“This issue is critical,” Ayotte continued. “Gov. [Chris] Sununu asked for more help from the Biden administration and the answer he got was a flat ‘no’ because they obviously don’t care about the border issue. We’ve got rampant drugs coming in and this is a huge issue for any state not only that is on the border but every state in this country.”
To fix the issue, Ayotte said New Hampshire must be a state that disincentivizes illegal immigration by outlawing sanctuary policies and not extending benefits, such as driver’s licenses, to illegal aliens as Massachusetts now does.
“I love our ‘live free or die’ values and what we stand for but that means on immigration, no sanctuary policies, no driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants,” Ayotte said. “These are all things happening in Massachusetts and guess what, Gov. Healey just had to declare a state of emergency because so many illegal immigrants are there because they have sanctuary policies.”
Meanwhile, fentanyl is increasingly wreaking havoc on New Hampshire’s small towns and cities.
In 2022, alone, New Hampshire saw nearly 440 residents die from accidental drug overdoses — almost triple the roughly 160 who died a decade ago.
The main culprit is fentanyl which is smuggled through the southern border by the Mexican drug cartels before being routed to every state in the nation. Last year, fentanyl was responsible for 90 percent of accidental drug overdoses in New Hampshire.
Ayotte said combating fentanyl begins with locking up dealers, for good.
“I want to make sure that the fentanyl dealers understand that if they cross over the border from Massachusetts, they’re going to do real, significant time,” Ayotte said. “We catch you, we arrest you, we’re putting you in prison and that’s something I’m running on — tougher penalties for these drug dealers who are killing people in our state and killing people across this country.”
“In New Hampshire, there was a misguided bail reform … it’s causing a revolving door right now,” Ayotte continued. “It’s causing dangerous criminals to not be held on bail or they get back out on the streets and there have literally been three people who have died as a result of this … I’m pushing for tougher bail laws and tougher penalties for fentanyl dealers.”
The Republican primary for New Hampshire governor takes place September 10, 2024, while the gubernatorial election is set for November 5, 2024.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.