The DEA disagrees with Trump about how heroin is crossing the border
Another White House talking point is falling victim to President Trump's own administration.
In a Tuesday Good Morning America interview, Vice President Mike Pence discussed how heroin that "comes through our southern border" could be curbed with a wall. But data from the Drug Enforcement Agency counters his whole argument.
In its 2018 threat assessment, the DEA pointed out that 91 percent of heroin it analyzed in 2017 came from Mexico. Yet only "a small percentage" of heroin was seized during illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, the DEA wrote, adding that a "majority of the flow" happens at ports of entry. Those legal crossings would obviously still happen even if a wall spanned the entire border.
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Trump used a similar talking point last week, saying "the drugs ... don't go through the ports of entry," the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale points out. As the DEA has made clear, they definitely do.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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