OLATHE, Kan. (WDAF) – Five Kansas sheriffs plan to visit the country’s Southern Border with Sen. Roger Marshall.
Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, Shawnee County Sheriff Brian Hill, Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards, and Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse will travel with Senator Marshall on Thursday, May 19. They will tour the area, meet with border patrol officers, and attend briefings while there.
Marshall said the trip is needed due to the expiration of Title 42 and the worsening fentanyl crisis.
Title 42 was implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March of 2020 to stop the spread of COVID-19. It allows immigration officers to deny migrants entry to the U.S. at the southern border.
Marshall also said the group would discuss the fentanyl crisis while on the trip.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths topped all other drug-related overdose deaths in Kansas last year, Marshall said.
He also pointed out officers have seized more than 12,000 pounds of fentanyl from traffickers at the southern border. Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows more drugs are seized from the Southwest Border than the Northern Border or either coast.
“The crisis at our southern border is our biggest, most immediate national security threat. With fentanyl pouring across the border, this has turned into a public health crisis as well. Fentanyl is the deadliest drug our country has ever seen and is effecting Kansans at record rates,” Marshall said.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, 149 of the 338 people in Kansas who died of drug overdose between Jan. 1 and June 30 of last year involved fentanyl.