Fiona Harrigan, writing at Reason.com:
When politicians and pundits on the right call for the U.S.-Mexico border to be secured, they often point to rising fentanyl overdose deaths among Americans as justification.
[…]
Despite the idea’s sticking power in certain circles, it’s inaccurate to say that undocumented immigrants crossing an open border are chiefly responsible for fentanyl arriving at the country’s doors. In reality, U.S. citizens carrying the drug through legal ports of entry are primarily to blame.
[…]
Discussions of border enforcement often mash together fentanyl overdose deaths and unauthorized border crossings with little eye to how they actually relate. That’s bad enough, since it often leads politicians to condemn migrants for an issue they have little to do with. Even worse is the fact that scapegoating foreigners only helps to obscure the factors that are truly driving overdose deaths in the United States.