Illegal Immigration and Fentanyl at the U.S. Northern and Southwest Borders

Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino. In recent remarks to the press, President Donald Trump restated his intention to impose 25% tariffs on U.S. imports from Mexico and Canada as early as Feb. 1. His reasoning: “vast” illegal immigration and “massive” amounts of fentanyl coming to the U.S. from those countries. But Trump drew a false equivalence between the two countries. In fact, the magnitude of the difference is enormous. While illegal immigration through Canada has increased in recent years, it still is nowhere near the level of illegal immigration at the border with Mexico. Likewise, the amount of fentanyl seized by federal authorities at the northern border is tiny compared with the amount seized by officials along the southwest border. “We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people … to come in and fentanyl to come in,” Trump told a reporter who asked about the tariffs while Trump was signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20. The following day, in a press conference from the White House, Trump again explained why he may move forward with the tariffs. “They’ve allowed, both of them,...