[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                        BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS:
                       EXAMINING THE IMPACTS OF 
                         INTERNATIONAL CARTELS 
                       TARGETING INDIAN COUNTRY

=======================================================================

                           OVERSIGHT HEARING

                               before the

                      SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND 
                             INVESTIGATIONS

                                 of the

                     COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION
                               __________

                       Wednesday, April 10, 2024
                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-108
                               __________

       Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources
       
       
       
       
       
              [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]





        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
                                   or
          Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov          
                                 ______

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

55-380 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2024 













      

                     COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

                     BRUCE WESTERMAN, AR, Chairman
                    DOUG LAMBORN, CO, Vice Chairman
                  RAUL M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Ranking Member

Doug Lamborn, CO                     Grace F. Napolitano, CA  
Robert J. Wittman, VA                Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,   
Tom McClintock, CA                     CNMI       
Paul Gosar, AZ                       Jared Huffman, CA
Garret Graves, LA                    Ruben Gallego, AZ       
Aumua Amata C. Radewagen, AS         Joe Neguse, CO   
Doug LaMalfa, CA                     Mike Levin, CA
Daniel Webster, FL                   Katie Porter, CA     
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, PR         Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM           
Russ Fulcher, ID                     Melanie A. Stansbury, NM    
Pete Stauber, MN                     Mary Sattler Peltola, AK       
John R. Curtis, UT                   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, NY         
Tom Tiffany, WI                      Kevin Mullin, CA       
Jerry Carl, AL                       Val T. Hoyle, OR    
Matt Rosendale, MT                   Sydney Kamlager-Dove, CA                   
Lauren Boebert, CO                   Seth Magaziner, RI      
Cliff Bentz, OR                      Nydia M. Velazquez, NY  
Jen Kiggans, VA                      Ed Case, HI
Jim Moylan, GU                       Debbie Dingell, MI        
Wesley P. Hunt, TX                   Susie Lee, NV      
Mike Collins, GA                             
Anna Paulina Luna, FL                         
John Duarte, CA                                 
Harriet M. Hageman, WY
                    Vivian Moeglein, Staff Director
                      Tom Connally, Chief Counsel
                 Lora Snyder, Democratic Staff Director
                   http://naturalresources.house.gov 
                   
                                 ------                                

              SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS

                        PAUL GOSAR, AZ, Chairman
                      MIKE COLLINS, GA, Vice Chair
                MELANIE A. STANSBURY, NM, Ranking Member

Matt Rosendale, MT                   Ed Case, HI
Wesley P. Hunt, TX                   Ruben Gallego, AZ
Mike Collins, GA                     Susie Lee, NV
Anna Paulina Luna, FL                Raul M. Grijalva, AZ, ex officio
Bruce Westerman, AR, ex officio
                                 ------ 















                                 
                               CONTENTS

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Hearing held on Wednesday, April 10, 2024........................     1

Statement of Members:

    Gosar, Hon. Paul, a Representative in Congress from the State 
      of Arizona.................................................     1
    Stansbury, Hon. Melanie A., a Representative in Congress from 
      the State of New Mexico....................................     3
    Westerman, Hon. Bruce, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Arkansas..........................................    29

Statement of Witnesses:

    Kirk, Bryce, Tribal Executive Board Member, Fort Peck Tribes, 
      Poplar, Montana............................................     5
        Prepared statement of....................................     7
    Vaughan, Jessica, Director of Policy Studies, Center for 
      Immigration Studies, St. Helena Island, South Carolina.....    10
        Prepared statement of....................................    11
        Questions submitted for the record.......................    16

    Jose, Verlon M., Chairman, Tohono O'odham Nation, Sell, 
      Arizona....................................................    17
        Prepared statement of....................................    18
        Questions submitted for the record.......................    23
    Stiffarm, Jeffrey, President, Fort Belknap Indian Community, 
      Harlem, Montana............................................    26
        Prepared statement of....................................    28

Additional Materials Submitted for the Record:

    Submissions for the Record by Representative Gosar

        Zack Smith, The Heritage Foundation, Statement for the 
          Record.................................................    52

        Harlan Baker, Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy's 
          Indian Reservation, Statement for the Record...........    55

    Submissions for the Record by Representative Stansbury

        Southern Poverty Law Center, Statement for the Record....    56
        
 
                  OVERSIGHT HEARING ON BIDEN'S BORDER 
                    CRISIS: EXAMINING THE IMPACTS OF 
                     INTERNATIONAL CARTELS TARGETING 
                            INDIAN COUNTRY
             
                              ----------                              

                       Wednesday, April 10, 2024
                     U.S. House of Representatives
              Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
                     Committee on Natural Resources
                             Washington, DC

                              ----------                              

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:19 a.m. in 
Room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Paul Gosar 
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Gosar, Rosendale, Collins, 
Westerman; and Stansbury.
    Also present: Representatives Wittman, Carl, Hageman, 
Crane, Zinke; Garcia, and Ramirez.

    Dr. Gosar. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations 
will come to order.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the Subcommittee at any time.
    The Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on 
Biden's border crisis, examining the impacts of international 
cartels targeting Indian Country.
    Under Committee Rule 4(f), any oral opening statements at 
the hearing are limited to the Chairman and the Ranking 
Minority Member. I therefore ask unanimous consent that all 
other Members' statements be made part of the hearing record if 
they are submitted in accordance with the Committee Rule 3(o).
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I ask unanimous consent that the following Members be 
allowed to sit and participate in today's hearing: the 
gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Carl; the gentlewoman from Wyoming, 
Ms. Hageman; the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Crane; the 
gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Garcia; the gentlewoman from 
Illinois, Mrs. Ramirez; and the gentleman from Montana, Mr. 
Zinke.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I now recognize myself for an opening statement.

      STATEMENT OF THE HON. PAUL GOSAR, A REPRESENTATIVE 
            IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA

    Dr. Gosar. Good morning, everyone. I would like to take a 
moment to give a special thanks to our witnesses for coming 
before the Committee today. The topic, ``Biden's Border Crisis: 
Examining the Impacts of International Cartels Targeting Indian 
Country,'' is not an easy one, and we know that the 
ramifications of discussing this issue publicly can be 
difficult. So, again, thank you for being here.
    In addition, I would also like to take a moment to reflect 
on someone who cannot be here with us today who would be, given 
the gravity of this topic. I know that the Full Committee 
Ranking Member Grijalva would want to be here. However, given 
his recent diagnosis, he needs to be at home to receive 
treatments and recover. We welcome the witnesses from his 
district, and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.
    It is no secret that the international criminal cartels 
have taken advantage of President Biden's open border policies 
to traffic massive amounts of drugs and humans into the United 
States. It was just a matter of time before they turned their 
sights to Indian Country, which is now experiencing the impacts 
of the cartel's illicit drug trade through increased crime, 
overdosing, deaths, and more.
    President Biden has repeatedly failed to address the influx 
of illegal immigration since taking office, and undermined 
numerous efforts to strengthen our border. He immediately 
issued directives and Executive Orders ending the policies of 
the Trump administration which had been successful in 
curtailing illegal immigration. Because of these actions and 
more, illegal immigration into the United States has reached an 
all-time high, embroiling the nation into an unprecedented 
crisis.
    Customs and Border Patrol Protection reports more than 9.4 
million encounters with illegal immigrants since President 
Biden took office, including more than 7.7 million illegal 
crossings along the Southern border. The Biden border policies 
have allowed criminal cartels to reap massive profits from 
their human trafficking and drug trade, amounting to tens of 
billions of dollars of revenue.
    Despite what my friends across the aisle may say, 
Republicans have been working to address the crisis at the 
border since we were given the Majority. We passed H.R. 2, the 
Secure the Border Act, back in 2023, and have been waiting for 
the Democratic Senate to finally act on this legislation.
    This Administration's carelessness at the Southern border 
has enabled dangerous criminal cartels to establish extensive 
distribution networks for the trafficking of dangerous and 
illegal substances into rural Indian communities, many located 
thousands of miles from the Southern border. This has led to an 
increase in violence, crime, and drug overdoses that have been 
ravaging communities across Indian Country.
    These cartels actively target rural communities in Indian 
Country due to the vast expanses of the often-unpatrolled 
lands, ongoing jurisdictional complications with law 
enforcement, and higher prices illegal drugs in rural areas can 
command, particularly those located far from our Southern 
border in Indian Country. They exploit this situation to become 
entrenched in Indian communities, particularly those out West.
    Unfortunately, law enforcement is not well equipped on most 
Indian reservations to deal with the threat of the cartels. The 
Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana rely on only two federally 
funded Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal police officers per 
shift to patrol more than 440,000 acres of land, home to 
roughly 6,000 residents. Similarly, the Crow Reservation has 
only two police officers patrolling 2.5 million acres at any 
time.
    The tribes in the region are suffering. The Fort Peck 
Reservation in Montana has dealt with these devastating effects 
of the cartel activity in their region for years, including 
fentanyl addiction and associated crimes and violence. 
Tragically, their youth are most exposed to the dangers 
presented by the cartels, and unless something is done quickly 
an entire generation could be lost to fentanyl addiction.
    In Wyoming, the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone 
Tribes on the Wind River Reservation have repeatedly struggled 
with incursions from the cartels. At first, meth was thrust 
upon the Wind River Tribe, but now fentanyl has taken over. 
With minimal resources to stop the cartels and to solve the 
drug crisis, the cartels continue to plague the Wind River 
Reservation. That is my home area.
    It is unacceptable that anyone is forced to live under the 
threat of these dangerous criminal cartels right in the heart 
of America. With this hearing, I hope to raise the alarm to 
Congress on the cartels' invasion into Indian Country and the 
terrible impacts on Indian communities.
    Despite the policy differences we may have from time to 
time, I know that everyone here in this room recognizes the 
severity and the urgency of this issue. I appreciate my 
Democratic colleagues' engagement today, and I hope we can all 
build upon this hearing in order to protect Indian communities 
and the cartels' presence on the Indian lands, and to stem the 
flow of drug and human trafficking across our Southern border.
    I now recognize the Ranking Member, Ms. Stansbury, for her 
opening statement.

       STATEMENT OF  THE HON. MELANIE A. STANSBURY, A 
         REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF 
         NEW MEXICO

    Ms. Stansbury. Good morning. I want to first start, Mr. 
Chairman, by welcoming our witnesses.
    Thank you for traveling many, many miles to come here today 
and to share what is happening in your communities and to share 
about these difficult issues.
    For me, this is a very personal issue. The fentanyl crisis 
is not a partisan issue. Opioid addiction, the ways in which it 
is touching down in our communities, does not know any 
political party. In 2019, my life was personally changed 
forever when one of my oldest friends died of a fentanyl 
overdose. And I was serving in the State Legislature at the 
time, and I will never forget the morning that I got the call.
    For a lot of people who haven't experienced it personally, 
they don't know what it looks like. The crisis began, we know, 
in this country with general drug addiction. It increased 
dramatically with over-prescription of opioid drugs in our 
communities. And now, with the vast numbers of opioids and 
fentanyl coming into our communities, it means that fathers, 
grandfathers, mothers, aunties, and dear friends are dying 
every single day in our communities. And nowhere is this more 
apparent than in New Mexico, where the fentanyl crisis is 
literally ravaging our communities.
    I know these are difficult issues to talk about, and I 
deeply appreciate our tribal leaders who came here today to 
share those stories.
    And I implore my colleagues across the aisle to not turn 
this hearing into a partisan hearing. This is not about 
partisan politics. This is about the lives of our people. It is 
part of why, as this hearing was announced, we actually reached 
out to staff on the Majority to say, please, let's do this in a 
bipartisan way. This is not a time for showmanship.
    We have proposed real solutions. President Biden has put 
together a task force and various asks. He has transmitted them 
to Congress. The Senate has already worked in good faith to 
negotiate a bipartisan solution to increase border security 
funding, to bring more technology to the border, to try to help 
address interdiction issues.
    In New Mexico alone, we have had 574 deaths just over the 
last couple of years from the fentanyl crisis, and those are 
just the ones that are reported. When I am home, every single 
day I hear stories from our law enforcement, our first 
responders, our tribal leaders, our mayors, and our health care 
providers who are seeing the firsthand effects of these issues 
every single day on the ground.
    We know that these issues are affecting our tribal 
communities disproportionately, whether it is the lack of 
health care infrastructure or the lack of funding that has been 
provided through BIA law enforcement and other tribal services. 
We know that Congress has to act, and I implore my colleagues 
to help address this issue.
    But I also think it is important that we talk factually 
about how fentanyl is coming into the United States and how we 
are actually seeing this surge happen. We know the facts are 
very clear on this, that 90 percent of fentanyl is coming into 
the United States across legal ports of entry. It is being 
trafficked by the cartels, but it is mostly American citizens 
who are being recruited to transport those drugs. We know that 
once it comes into our communities, it is being distributed 
largely through existing drug networks, and we know that many 
of our family members are ending up in dire consequences as a 
result of that.
    We know the solutions. The solutions require that we do 
address the flow of drugs and raw materials coming into this 
country. That means more border patrol, more support to catch 
fentanyl at our ports of entry. It means interdiction in our 
communities, partnerships with our tribal, Federal, local law 
enforcement to actually get drugs and those who are trafficking 
them off the streets. And the third is recovery, because our 
communities are struggling, especially in our lowest-income 
communities. And if we do not have the behavioral health 
infrastructure to help people who are struggling with 
addiction, they will die because we see it every single day.
    We have been working across the aisle to try to create a 
fentanyl prevention caucus, to try to pass legislation, to try 
to get funding into the budget to do that. And one of the 
things I would love to ask the Chairman and my friends across 
the aisle is to join me in asking Speaker Johnson to put 
forward emergency funding for Border Patrol to help address the 
flow of drugs into the United States. It is something that we 
have tried through the emergency supplemental that is still 
stalled out on the House Floor. I implore my colleagues to help 
address this question.
    Finally, I want to hear from our guests who are here today 
about what you think that we need to be doing here in Congress 
to address this issue. We know it is serious. We take the lives 
of your communities very seriously, and we deeply appreciate 
you being here today to testify.
    With that, I yield back.

    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentlewoman. We also have to have 
accountability, and that is part of the thing that we never see 
aspect, is that if you are part of this process and you 
actually endanger your fellow man, that you have to face the 
responsibilities of that. And until we get to that point, I 
think everything else is moot.
    Now, I am going to introduce our witnesses. First of all, 
we have Mr. Bryce Kirk, Tribal Executive Board Member, Fort 
Peck Tribes, Poplar, Montana; Ms. Jessica Vaughan, Director of 
Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC; 
Mr. Verlon Jose, Chairman, Tohono O'odham Nation, Sell, 
Arizona; and Mr. Jeffrey Stiffarm, President, Fort Belknap 
Indian Community, Harlem, Montana.
    Let me remind the witnesses that under the Committee Rules, 
you must limit your oral statements to 5 minutes, but your 
entire statement will be placed into the record.
    To begin your testimony, please press the ``on'' button so 
we can all hear you, and you will see that the timing light 
turns green. When you see yellow, try to summarize it, and when 
it hits red, you need to start to stop.
    I would like to now recognize Mr. Kirk for 5 minutes.

       STATEMENT OF BRYCE KIRK, TRIBAL EXECUTIVE BOARD 
          MEMBER, FORT PECK TRIBES, POPLAR, MONTANA

    Mr. Kirk. Thank you so much. I am Bryce Kirk, Councilman 
for the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes on the Fort Peck Indian 
Reservation. As you have my testimony, I would like to put it 
into record.
    I will kind of go off script. I guess I am good at that.
    One of the biggest things that we are dealing with in the 
past month, in the mail we have 5 pounds of meth and, just last 
week, 5,000 fentanyl pills. If those fentanyl pills would have 
hit the streets, that is a half-million dollars in Indian 
Country just alone in Fort Peck.
    The biggest thing that it is, it costs $0.30, the farther 
you go south to $0.10 to get a fentanyl pill, $0.70 in 
Washington. So, you think about the issues that we are having 
because there are only two postal inspectors in the state of 
Montana for everything that we have to cover. So, you think 
about the ones that are getting away. You think about the 
things that are happening.
    My biggest stance, and I testified in public safety and 
justice, is right now this issue is an everyone issue, it is 
hitting everybody.
    Over and over again in Indian Country, we see these 
billion-dollar packages trying to get sent overseas. My biggest 
fight is why don't we start right here? When are we going to 
start worrying about Indian Country? We have treaties. We have 
obligations to tribes to start fighting for us.
    Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Zinke, you guys are from Montana. You 
understand that, too. The biggest thing that we need is 
everybody to come together. Are we always going to get along? 
No, we are not. But the biggest thing, it is hurting the United 
States of America. It is hurting Indian Country.
    And the biggest thing is, once we work together for the 
betterment of the people, and once we start making headway when 
it comes to that, we can truly make a difference.
    I myself was addicted for about 14 years, clean and sober 
now 12 years. But the biggest thing is that we can come out. We 
are stronger together. We can make a difference when it comes 
to that.
    Talking to our people as I was flying here yesterday, the 
biggest thing that we are having is 14-year-old girls getting 
trafficked to Williston, North Dakota. Thinking that it is OK 
that I am going to go there and make money and do these things 
because of how bad it is on the reservations, the lack of cops, 
the lack of services, the lack of juvenile detention centers, 
our own adult correctional facility, and everything that is up 
in arms right now, we do need help.
    With this, I hope it is not just to check a box off to say, 
hey, we worked with Indian Country, because we get that a lot.
    And we will continue to come. And like I shared, we will 
continue to make a difference in our communities with the 
scraps that we are given. We will continue to fight to save our 
people. We will continue to fight to do what we need to do what 
is right for our people because we have always been resilient 
when it came to that. We always know how to stand with each 
other. We always know how to stand and back each other and help 
each other up.
    But we need your help, your help for more funding when it 
comes to BIA, more funding when it comes to IHS, more funding 
when it comes to these things that help Indian Country. That is 
what we need, those services to help mental health facilities. 
We have already lost a generation when it came to that.
    But one thing is that you can help us now. The past is the 
past. We can't live on the past, but if we move forward in a 
better way to be able to help our people when it comes to that, 
we are able to make a difference. We are all elected. We are 
all here to make a difference. And that is the biggest thing.
    Truly, if you want to make a difference, give direct 
funding to tribes. Let us, as tribes, finally sit there and do 
our own stuff, help our own people, give our own people the 
services and everything that they deserve, not having a 
middleman like the BIA and the IHS dictate with all the 
bureaucratic red tape to tell us how it is going to be done.
    We need to work together. We need your help. We are here, 
and we will continue to come here and testify, if that is what 
it takes to sit there and share our stories. But people 
shouldn't be trafficked. Fentanyl shouldn't reach up in 
northeastern Montana 50 miles away from the Northern border. It 
shouldn't reach those places. But with your help and working 
together, we can truly make a difference and make America what 
it once was. Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Kirk follows:]   
  Prepared Statement of Bryce Kirk, Councilman, Assiniboine and Sioux 
                  Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation

    I am Bryce Kirk, Councilman for the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of 
the Fort Peck Reservation. I would like to thank the Subcommittee for 
the invitation to testify before you today.
    The Fort Peck Reservation is in northeast Montana, forty miles west 
of the North Dakota border, and fifty miles south of the Canadian 
border, with the Missouri River defining its southern border. The 
Reservation encompasses over two million acres of land. We have 
approximately 12,000 enrolled tribal members, with approximately 7,000 
tribal members living on the Reservation. We have a total Reservation 
population of approximately 11,000 people.
    As I will discuss in greater detail, there is no greater crisis we 
must address on the Fort Peck Reservation than the trade and 
trafficking of drugs, in particular fentanyl, on the Reservation. I 
think the Fort Peck Tribes are as capable a Tribe as any in the country 
to combat this crisis, but we need the support of our federal partners. 
We stand ready to work with our partners from law enforcement, social 
service agencies and health care agencies to do this necessary work.
    At Fort Peck, we have long believed that a strong tribal government 
is the way to best keep our community safe. So, we have taken action to 
maximize our authorities to protect everyone living within our 
boundaries. In this regard, the Fort Peck Tribes have provided law 
enforcement and correction services on our Reservation since 1996 under 
an Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act contract. We 
were also one of the first Indian tribes in the nation to enter into a 
cross-deputization agreement with state, county and city law 
enforcement agencies. Under this agreement, first ratified more than 
twenty years ago, tribal officers are deputized to enforce state and 
local law on the Reservation and state and local officers are 
authorized to enforce tribal law.
    For more than fifty years, the Fort Peck Tribes have had an 
independent judicial system, including an appellate court. It is 
through this system that we provide justice to our victims and our 
defendants. Currently, our judicial system includes law-trained judges, 
law-trained prosecutors, law-trained public defenders, probation 
officers, a published tribal code, and experienced court clerks and 
court reporters. Our court's opinions are published and available to 
the public. Notwithstanding a strong Tribal government and strong 
governmental institutions, we still are facing a crisis of fentanyl use 
in our community that threatens every aspect of our Reservation.
    This drug has infested every corner of our community, from the 
young to the old and without regard to gender or any other demographic. 
What we as tribal leaders are the most worried about is our youth. We 
fear this drug is robbing us of an entire generation: our very future.
    This crisis happened almost overnight. According to the Montana 
Attorney General's Office, since 2019, fentanyl seizures in the state 
have risen 11,000 percent. See, https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/02/24/ag-
reports-skyrocketing-fentanyl-crisis-montana. In 2022, the State Task 
Force agencies seized 206,955 dosage units of fentanyl, triple the 
amount recorded in 2021. Id. Throughout the entire state of Montana, 
the fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by 167 percent from 2016 
to 2020. See, https://leg.mt.gov/content/publications/fiscal/2023-
Interim/IBC-D/MT_Fentanyl_Trends_2021.pdf. The largest percentage of 
these deaths is adults between the ages of 24 and 44. Id.
    These are the people who should be the most productive in our 
communities. These people are our future leaders. Instead, they are 
dying. The Montana Department of Justice Division of Criminal 
Investigation reports that 10 percent of all high school students in 
Montana had taken a prescription drug without a prescription. Id. These 
children are not taking Lipitor. They are taking painkillers--opioids. 
Tragically for the Tribes in Montana, the opioid overdose death rate 
for Indian people is twice that of non-Indians. See, https://
www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/01/1101799174/tribal-leaders-
sound-the-alarm-after-fentanyl-overdoses-spike-at-blackfeet-nation.
    On the Fort Peck Reservation, what our law enforcement officers 
report is that an average opioid user's daily dosage is between 10-20 
pills. In an urban area, the average cost per pill is $1. On the Fort 
Peck Reservation, the average cost per pill is $120. So how does a user 
support this habit? He deals. According to our law enforcement, the 
average user is selling at least 50 pills a day to pay for his 20-pill 
habit.
    To put these numbers in context, a single illicit fentanyl pill can 
contain a potentially lethal dose. See, Facts about Fentanyl (dea.gov). 
In fact, DEA analysis of counterfeit pills found that 42% of pills 
tested for fentanyl contained a potentially lethal dose. Id. This means 
that many in our community--and especially many of our young people--
are gambling their lives 10 or 20 times a day.
    There is no doubt that the Mexican drug cartels are playing a major 
role in this crisis. They have found their way to the Fort Peck Indian 
Reservation and embedded themselves in our communities and our 
families. In February of this year, NBC News did an investigative story 
on the drug cartels in Montana and their targeting of the Reservations 
in Montana. I would ask that the printed story be included in the 
record of this hearing. In this story, America learned about Ricardo 
Ramos Medina, a former Mexican police officer who became a Sinaloa 
cartel associate.
    Mr. Medina was stopped on the Fort Peck Reservation. In the story, 
we learn that Mr. Medina was a key part of expanding the cartel's 
presence in Montana as he had a valid U.S. visa and was former law 
enforcement. So, he could travel freely in the United States. After he 
was arrested, he said he traveled to the Fort Peck Reservation to 
expand the drug cartel's operations on the Reservation.
    Between 2019 and 2202 the federal drug agencies have seized more 
than 2,000 fentanyl laced pills, 3 pounds of heroin, and 65 pounds of 
methamphetamine that these cartels had slated to go to Montana Indian 
Reservations. As the NBC story documents, the drug cartels know Montana 
is large and law enforcement is almost non-existent. They also know 
that the profit margin for the sale of these drugs is high. Thus, the 
reward is high and there is almost no risk for targeting and expanding 
their markets to the Reservations.
    What we have learned is that the cartels will target people in 
treatment facilities, including one in Arizona where our tribal members 
have been targeted while seeking treatment. Too often, we have tribal 
members, in particular vulnerable women, who return to the Reservation 
after seeking treatment still addicted to drugs, and now engaged with 
cartel associate members. This is how these people become imbedded in 
our communities and begin to take hold of entire families.
    The toll that this amount of drug trafficking is having on our 
community is devastating. I lost two men I considered my brothers this 
last year. Now their children will grow up without a father. We have 
children as young as middle school taking fentanyl. Suicide remains 
extremely high on our Reservation. Unfortunately, suicide remains a 
leading cause of death across all the Reservations in Montana. The 
crimes against our children--our babies--are unspeakable.
    This drug affects all families from all walks of life on the 
Reservation, including fathers, mothers, grandmothers, and 
grandfathers. I battled with addiction myself. But for a man who 
mentored me and is still very much like a father to me, I would not be 
here today. My children would not have a dad. I never would have been 
elected to serve my people. I am thankful every day for my life that I 
have now.
    In March 2023, we had to close our Tribal Court because someone 
chose to smoke fentanyl in one of the bathrooms. An officer was 
poisoned simply by entering the bathroom in question. The cleaning of 
the Court facility and its air systems took time and was costly.
    Another indicator of the fentanyl crisis is the increased crime 
rate on the Reservation. In September, the Tribal Executive Board 
issued a state of emergency due to the severe increase in juvenile 
crime. The increase in crime is across all sectors of crime from 
property crimes to violent crimes, including sexual assaults, 
kidnapping and murders. Men, women and juveniles are the perpetrators. 
And virtually every crime can be attributed to fentanyl: Either a 
person was high when they perpetrated the crime, or they committed the 
crime to secure money to buy drugs, or they committed an act of 
violence in retaliation for something related to fentanyl use or 
distribution.
    While this crisis is daunting, it is not hopeless, and we must 
continue to take action to combat it. This is why I appreciate the 
Subcommittee's attention to this issue. There is no single solution. We 
must look at this problem from every angle. It is a law enforcement 
problem, a mental health problem, a social services problem, an 
economic development problem and a community development problem. Thus, 
we must craft solutions in all these areas so that we are responding to 
the cause of the whole sickness and not just the individual symptoms.
    In the area of law enforcement, we need the Department of Justice 
and Drug Enforcement Agency to remain strong partners in the 
investigation and prosecution of drug crimes on the Reservation. I want 
to commend our U.S. Attorney's Office for the hard work they do. One 
area where we would like more attention is the level at which a U.S. 
Attorney is prosecuting a drug trafficking case. It is our 
understanding that a person must be in possession of more than fifty 
pills to be prosecuted for possession with the intent to distribute. As 
I stated above, many people are possessing 50 to 100 pills simply to 
fund their own drug habit--and this is true especially of the young 
people. We must stop these transactions before these people become much 
larger dealers.
    In this regard, we need our federal partners to be true partners. 
In one instance, the DEA knew there was a known high level drug dealer 
traveling through Fort Belknap, Rocky Boys and Fort Peck and at no time 
did DEA share this information with the Tribal law enforcement 
agencies. It seems like to us there is a turf battle related to who is 
going to bust who, and no one cares about the ultimate victims of these 
crimes. They just care about who is going to get the major bust.
    One area of concern that I have recently become familiar with is 
the lack of accurate data collection and reporting by the relevant 
federal agencies. We know on our Reservation there is a rise in crime. 
We know it from the reports of our law enforcement agencies, and we 
know it by what our tribal members tell us they are experiencing. But 
if you ask the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they will report that crime 
rates are down across Indian country. This may be true if you take all 
of the numbers in the aggregate on a national level, but it is not true 
at Fort Peck and I am certain it not true across Montana and Wyoming. 
This impacts the ability of federal agencies to justify providing the 
resources that we need to combat this crisis. I would ask this 
Committee to request from GAO a study on the crime rates on 
Reservations in Montana and Wyoming.
    In this regard, our law enforcement officers need greater support. 
Like every law enforcement agency in the country, we are having 
difficulty recruiting and retaining officers. There are several reasons 
this problem is exacerbated in Indian country. These jobs are 
dangerous. They frequently involve dealing with the heaviest--even 
traumatic--situations and events, which would be difficult to witness 
for anyone but may be especially so for officers who are from our 
community. Yet, these officers do not have access to adequate benefits 
and resources to manage the stress of the job. They must, at the very 
least, receive the same benefits--in particular pensions--as other 
federal officers. Thus, we would ask that Congress take up the Tribal 
Law Enforcement Parity Act, H.R. 4524, which would ensure that Tribal 
Officers operating pursuant to a Self-Determination Act contract, like 
ours at Fort Peck, would have access to the federal pension program as 
they would if they were BIA officers.
    We also support expanding the recognition for Tribal law 
enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute non-Indians who choose to 
come on to our Reservation with the intention of selling and 
distributing these illegal drugs. This way the drug dealers will begin 
to understand that it is not a free pass when you enter a Reservation. 
We will arrest and prosecute these offenders.
    Another area of greater support is the need for additional K-9 
Units in Indian country. We had one K-9 unit from Northern Cheyenne for 
a week and it shut down drug trafficking on the Reservation for that 
week. We need greater support for the technology that can assist in 
this work, whether it is additional cameras and monitoring equipment or 
drones. We have too few officers and they cannot be everywhere they 
need to be. These tools will help our officers see what is happening on 
the Reservation.
    In the area of mental health: We need more mental health and 
substance abuse treatment services. We remain thankful that Montana 
adopted Medicaid expansion as this has allowed for greater access to 
mental health services. We are thankful for the Veterans Administration 
and its work to provide mental health and treatment services to Native 
Veterans. As I said, when people go off the Reservation and seek 
treatment they are targeted by the cartels. We need treatment on our 
Reservation. Right now, we only have an outpatient treatment facility 
on our Reservation. While I acknowledge this is more than many 
Reservations have, it is not enough--we do not have the capacity to 
provide services to all who need it, and many people on our Reservation 
need inpatient treatment. Thus, we need additional facilities to 
provide inpatient treatment to people within our communities.
    In the area of economic development: We need jobs and job training 
for our people. A job gives a person the means to support their family; 
it also gives them a sense of purpose and fulfillment, which helps 
their mental health, as well as the physical and mental health of those 
in their household. My wife operates a coffee shop on the Reservation. 
She has made it her mission to provide hope through employment for our 
youth and now adults are coming to her asking for the opportunity to 
work. She is making a difference for our people and is an important 
asset in battling this crisis on the Reservation. Thus, supporting more 
job training and workforce development programs and entrepreneurs like 
my wife is critical to this effort. The Department of Labor's Indian 
Employment and Training Program must be better funded and streamlined 
to provide better services throughout Indian country.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the vitally important 
issue of addressing this crisis that is facing our communities. I would 
be pleased to answer any questions and to provide any additional 
information that may assist the Committee.

                                 ______                                

    Dr. Gosar. Thank you very much, Mr. Kirk. I now recognize 
Ms. Vaughan for her 5 minutes.

      STATEMENT  OF JESSICA  VAUGHAN,  DIRECTOR  OF  POLICY
        STUDIES, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES, ST. HELENA 
        ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

    Ms. Vaughan. Thank you so much for the opportunity to 
testify.
    Even as the Biden administration's irresponsible border 
policies have caused an incalculable cost to American 
communities, including those in Indian Country, there are those 
who have profited enormously from them. Yes, the employers of 
illegal workers, the huge network of NGOs and government 
contractors, but most notably the foreign criminal cartels who 
have monetized the border policies and this situation to almost 
unfathomable gain, not just Mexican cartels, but also Chinese 
drug cartels, Central and South American gangs, and others.
    As a result, Americans have been exposed to new national 
security and public safety threats, not least the trafficking 
and distribution of illicit drugs. American communities, 
including and especially those in Indian Country, have 
experienced a huge spike in deaths, overdoses, and poisonings 
from dangerous drugs distributed by the foreign cartels and 
their accomplices. These transnational criminal enterprises now 
represent a profound threat to civil society and the rule of 
law throughout the Western Hemisphere.
    Specifically, the policies most responsible are the 
cessation of barrier construction that allows not only the 
drugs, but the cartel operatives to enter the United States; 
the catch-and-release policies where 85 percent of the people 
who are arriving at the border illegally are allowed into the 
country without meaningful vetting; and through the improper 
use of the parole authority. So far, there have been at least 
3.3 million people who crossed the border illegally who have 
been allowed to enter this way. And that is not counting nearly 
2 million gotaways who are able to evade the Border Patrol 
because the Border Patrol has to prioritize the processing of 
people through parole.
    There is also the lack of enforcement in the interior. ICE 
is removing half of the criminal aliens that it once was 
removing in prior times, and we have seen specifically the 
erosion of partnerships with local law enforcement agencies and 
especially diminished detention capacity that have hampered 
ICE. And now they are stretched to respond to the burgeoning 
gang and cartel problems created by the insecure border.
    So, the cartels are earning about $30 million a day, or 
nearly $1 billion a month. They are using this revenue to 
expand their operations within the United States. This problem 
is going to be difficult to eradicate from this point on, and 
it is going to persist years into the future.
    The answer is a lot of improvements could be made. A lot of 
this could be addressed through executive action using the 
President's bona fide authorities to control the border. But 
Congress also needs to get into the act to address the threat 
from the cartels. And the longer we wait, the harder they are 
going to be to dismantle.
    Yes, there are good provisions in H.R. 2, the House border 
security bill, that would help. But in addition, Congress needs 
to create a new type of designation for the cartels, similar to 
how law enforcement is able to approach international terrorist 
group threats. This would enable, among other things, ICE to 
target the financial assets of the cartels using their 
immigration and customs authorities.
    We need to look at interrupting the vast flow of 
remittances out of the United States. That is not just migrants 
sending money home to their families, but it also includes 
direct payments to smugglers of drugs and people, and huge sums 
of money that are being laundered by the cartels and disguised 
as remittances. So, we need to enact better know-your-customer 
laws to get a handle on the huge flow of remittances that is 
enriching the cartels.
    Finally, because of the policing issues that are unique to 
Indian Country, Congress also should facilitate the creation of 
partnerships between Federal immigration authorities and tribal 
authorities, such as an expansion of task forces and 287(g) 
programs that would be especially helpful in places with 
significant cartel activity.
    Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Vaughan follows:]
    
Prepared Statement of Jessica M. Vaughan, Center for Immigration Studies 

    Thank you, Chairman Gosar, for the opportunity to testify today. 
The mass migration crisis instigated by the Biden administration's 
irresponsible immigration policies has caused incalculable harm to 
American communities, including those in Indian Country, even those far 
from the border. The mass catch and release policies have led to the 
release of more than three million illegal migrants, damaged the 
integrity of our immigration system, and exposed Americans to new 
national security and public safety threats--especially threats related 
to the trafficking and distribution of illicit drugs. Further, the huge 
influx of migrants taking advantage of the opportunity to be released 
into the United States has so overwhelmed the Border Patrol and its 
local partners that it can no longer control vast stretches of the 
border, enabling the illegal crossers who want to avoid apprehension to 
violate the border with impunity. These policies have facilitated the 
entry of illegal drugs and also the cartel operatives who distribute 
them. The result has been a huge spike in deaths, overdoses, and 
poisonings from dangerous drugs distributed by the cartels and their 
accomplices. In addition, the Biden policies have enriched certain 
transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican and Chinese 
cartels and Central and South American gangs, to the point where these 
organizations represent a threat to civil society and the rule of law 
throughout the Western Hemisphere.

    Biden Policies Set Off Flood of Illegal Migrants, Overwhelming 
Federal Agencies, Border Communities, and NGOs. When President Biden 
took office, he inherited the most secure land borders in U.S. history, 
with expanded and improved barriers, updated technology, and more 
personnel, all of which was backed up by policies that deterred 
migrants from crossing illegally and discouraged illegal aliens from 
remaining. As smuggling organizations and migrants became aware of the 
new policies, and as the processing and transportation networks were 
established within the country, the southern border was transformed 
into a chaotic, dangerous, and seemingly lawless frontier. It remains 
so today, except in the parts of Texas that have been secured by state 
authorities.
    From the first day of his presidency, Joe Biden and his appointees 
began dismantling a laundry list of policies that had succeeded in 
controlling the years-long wave of illegal migrants hoping to take 
advantage of our dysfunctional asylum system and court rulings that 
require minors and those arriving with minors to be released into the 
country. He ended construction of the border wall system; terminated 
the Migrant Protection Protocols that sent tens of thousands of alleged 
asylum seekers to wait in Mexico; canceled agreements with transit 
nations to offer safe haven to migrants and enforce their borders; 
relaxed application of Title 42 pandemic controls so that minors and 
families could enter; began awarding immigration parole to tens of 
thousands of illegal crossers, in defiance of the intent of Congress; 
extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to citizens of more nations 
and more recent arrivals; established strict limitations on interior 
enforcement to suppress deportations of all but the most egregious 
criminals; and launched plans for a new asylum system designed to 
expedite the legalization of illegal border crossers.
    Not surprisingly, the number of illegal border crossers has 
exploded, in response to what the migrants call Biden's ``invitacion.'' 
It was well understood around the globe that a large share of migrants 
who crossed the border illegally, especially those from certain 
countries, minors, and those bringing minors, would be apprehended by 
the Border Patrol, and would soon be released and transported to their 
destination in the United States, despite low expectations that they 
will comply with immigration proceedings or ever qualify to remain 
legally.
    According to the latest CBP data, the Border Patrol apprehended 
176,294 illegal migrants in January 2024 and more than 140,000 more in 
February--more than the prior January and February, but significantly 
less than the number caught in December 2023 (302,034), which had been 
the highest number ever apprehended in one month. So far this fiscal 
year (since October 1, 2023), 962,000 illegal migrants have been 
apprehended.
    While apprehensions are a good metric for assessing the number of 
migrants who have attempted to enter illegally, the more important 
statistic is the number of migrants who were released into the country. 
According to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, more than 85 percent of these 
illegal migrants have been allowed to enter country--in defiance of 
federal laws stating that, with few exceptions, they should be held in 
custody for expedited due process and removal (https://www.foxnews.com/
politics/mayorkas-tells-border-patrol-agents-illegal-immigrants-
released-into-us-sources).
    The House Judiciary Committee has estimated that at least 3.3 
million illegal aliens have been released into the country since 
President Biden took office. Only about 10,000 of those released have 
completed their immigration proceedings and been removed. (https://
judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/
files/evo-media-document/2024-01-18-new-data-reveal-worsening-
magnitude-of-the-biden-border-crisis-and-lack-of-interior-immigration-
enforcement.pdf.)
    In addition, it is estimated that nearly two million aliens have 
entered without apprehension. FACTSHEET: Record-Breaking Border 
Encounters Underscore Secretary Mayorkas' Refusal to Comply With the 
Law, Breach of Public Trust--Committee on Homeland Security 
(house.gov).

    Catch and Release Policies Undermine Public Safety. Besides the 
enormous fiscal costs of providing transportation, shelter, medical 
care, schooling, and other services to the illegal migrants, the Biden 
catch and release policies at the border also have created new public 
safety problems, with a human cost that is incalculable. Proponents of 
mass immigration often claim (without evidence) that illegal immigrants 
are less likely to commit crimes than Americans, and therefore concerns 
about crimes committed by illegal immigrants are exaggerated, 
misplaced, or motivated by racial animus. These assertions are 
unproven, usually based on faulty interpretations of crime or Census 
data, and defy common sense and experience. They are profoundly 
demeaning to the victims of crimes committed by released illegal 
migrants who by law should have been detained and removed to their home 
country after apprehension. These are victimizations that are directly 
attributable to the Biden border catch and release policies.
    Millions have seen the video of a shocking attack on police 
officers in Times Square by a group of migrants in New York City, most 
of whom have thus far escaped authorities (https://www.foxnews.com/us/
migrants-stomped-kicked-nypd-officers-vicious-times-square-attack-yet-
arrested). In another disturbing case, New York City authorities 
recently arrested eight members of a ring of Venezuelan illegal 
migrants who were living in the city's shelters, and who are accused of 
stealing scooters to cruise through city streets and snatch phones and 
handbags, sometimes violently. The phones were then hacked to gain 
access to financial information, and the victim's back accounts were 
drained. (https://www.foxnews.com/us/illegal-masterminds-nyc-robbery-
ring-hacked-bank-apps-resold-stolen-phones-overseas).
    Reportedly, the suspects are associated with the violent Venezuelan 
gang Tren de Aragua. Gang members and hundreds of other criminals are 
believed to have escaped through tunnels from a Venezuela prison last 
year, and dozens have been arrested after illegally crossing our 
southern border. There is no way to know how many may have been caught 
and released, because immigration agents have no way to access records 
in Venezuela, and no diplomatic or law enforcement relationships to 
assist in the vetting of these migrants (https://www.ktsm.com/news/fbi-
agent-others-warn-of-venezuelan-gang-entering-into-us/).
    Migrants arriving at the border now receive only the most cursory 
screening before they are released into the country, which includes a 
fingerprint check of U.S. security, criminal justice, and immigration 
databases, a brief interview, and little other screening. Border 
officials generally cannot access criminal records in other countries, 
or do extensive background checks. Even worse, since the number of 
illegal crossings has reached crisis levels, border officials have 
sometimes been too overwhelmed to read and act on the results of 
security checks that indicate that an alien they have apprehended might 
be a threat. In at least three cases that we know of, a Lebanese-born 
Venezuelan citizen, a Colombian, and a Pakistani, border patrol agents 
released men who were watchlisted as known or suspected terrorists 
(https://cis.org/Bensman/Report-ICE-Releases-BorderCrossing-Terrorist-
Suspect-Venezuela-Despite-FBI-Recommendation, https://www.oig.dhs.gov/
sites/default/files/assets/2023-07/OIG-23-31-Jun23-Redacted.pdf, 
EXCLUSIVE: Pakistani Illegal Immigrant On Terror Watchlist Given Free 
Day Of Release In US/The Daily Caller).

    Cartels Are Thriving and Expanding Into the United States. Thanks 
to unprecedented opportunities to move people and drugs across our 
border, the Mexican cartels and other transnational criminal 
organizations are reaping unprecedented profits, to the tune of $30 
million a day, or nearly $1 Billion a month, according to a House 
Budget Committee report. They use the funds to acquire more 
sophisticated weapons and technology to solidify control over their 
territories in Mexico and beyond. More worrisome for the long term, 
however, is the way the cartels are using this cash cow to underwrite 
an expansion of their operations within the United States. This 
expansion presents profound implications for public safety that will 
persist for years into the future.
    According to Border Patrol testimony to Congress, the smuggling fee 
is currently about $8,000 for passage to America. Many migrants make 
only a down payment up front of about $500, and agree to work off the 
rest when they get to their destination. The remainder is typically 
paid through debt bondage accomplished by wage garnishment, fees for 
housing and food, and other forms of exploitation and outright threats 
and extortion. Long-haul migrants from other continents pay more, 
sometimes up to $50,000. It is Biden's catch and release policy that 
entices these migrants to put themselves into the hands of a criminal 
organization, risking their own safety to journey here, and then being 
subject to exploitation, abuse and trafficking for labor and other 
purposes.
    The migrant-moving business is lucrative enough, but it also helps 
further another critical illicit cartel activity--drug smuggling. The 
cartels routinely send large groups of migrants over the border in 
certain areas to bog down the Border Patrol while they move drug loads 
through the other unguarded areas, along with high-value clients, such 
as criminals and watch-listed individuals, who don't want to be caught 
by the Border Patrol.
    In the last three years, the amount of illicit drugs flowing into 
American communities has exploded, with deadly, tragic consequences, 
and the cartels are behind nearly all of it, according to a recent 
exhaustive report by the House Homeland Security Committee. It's 
happening not just in southwest border states, not just in cities, but 
also in rural areas, including Montana, Kansas, Kentucky, and many 
others.
    With the profits from cross-border trafficking so enormous, the 
stakes for control of the plazas, or spheres of control along the 
border, have risen as well, increasing instances of deadly violence. 
For example, one night in mid-December, a shoot-out broke out among 
rival cartels for control of several areas along the Arizona border 
with large gaps in the border fencing giving easy access. Responding to 
the melee, Border Patrol agents arrested one man on a private ranch on 
the U.S. side who was carrying an AK-47, two AK magazines, a handgun, 
and ammunition. Mexican authorities found 10 improvised explosive 
devices (IEDs) on the other side of the line. Obviously, the cartels 
are not humanitarian actors seeking only to help asylum seekers; nor 
are they young, impetuous gang-bangers. They behave like terrorists, 
and they have a plan, which they hire well-trained and well-armed 
violent thugs to carry out. Given the porous border, moving their 
operatives into this country to manage the business has not been 
difficult lately.
    The cartels are not humanitarian actors seeking to help asylum 
seekers; nor are they young, impetuous gang-bangers. They behave like 
terrorists, and they have a plan, for which they hire well-trained and 
well-armed violent thugs to carry out. The porous border and catch and 
release policies have made it easy to move their operatives into this 
country as well.
    Many American observers, including some in law enforcement, have 
been in denial of the threat that the drug cartels pose to America, 
insisting that the narco-bosses are too afraid of U.S. law enforcement 
agencies to try to replicate their violent tactics here. That theory 
has always been naive, and has been discredited by events. Among the 
acts of violence attributed to the cartels was an incident in January 
2023 described by authorities as an ``early morning massacre,'' where 
six people, including a recently bailed-out Surenos member, but also a 
baby and his teenage mother, were executed in a quiet residential 
street in Goshen, Calif. Reportedly, the surviving family members 
afterwards refused all offers of help from local authorities 
[California sheriff rips border crisis as details emerge on massacre of 
6 (nypost.com)].
    In 2022 federal authorities alone made more than 300 arrests for 
Mexican cartel-related crimes, according to one analysis [Map: Tracking 
drug cartel arrests across the United States (newsnationnow.com)]. The 
cartels are sophisticated business people, and nimble at adapting to 
emerging opportunities. The have evolved horizontally to branch out 
into new ventures, for example human trafficking as well as drug 
trafficking, in fentanyl trafficking as well as heroin and marijuana 
trafficking, and stealing oil as well as automobiles. Noticing the 
trend in some jurisdictions away from imposing stiff consequences for 
shoplifting and burglary, some cartels have branched out into the $70 
billion organized retail theft industry, creating squads of operatives 
to steal goods on a major scale, even roping in recent illegal migrants 
as a way to pay off their smuggling debt, according to Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement investigators [HSI, ACAMS take aim at organized 
retail crime/ICE].
    The Sinaloa and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) cartels have 
capitalized on the legalization of marijuana in some states, opening 
tens of thousands of illegal weed, or ``blood cannabis'' grows in 
northern California, Oregon and other states, where they undercut 
lawful growers and use trafficked labor, managed violently. [`Narco 
slaves': Migrant workers face abuse on Oregon's cartel-run, illegal pot 
farms--ABC News and Cartel-backed pot grows linked to California, 
Oregon human trafficking (usatoday.com)]. Local sheriffs lament that 
they are woefully out-manned and out-gunned, and can't keep up with the 
body count. ``We're a very short amount of time away from having heads 
in the square like they do down in Mexico,'' said Mendocino County 
Sheriff Matt Kendall in December 2021.
    Expanded cartel operations in the United States is good for their 
local criminal partners, too, who help distribute and sell the illicit 
products. This is how they have infiltrated Indian Country crime 
networks. The cartels have relationships with different partners in 
different locales, working everyone from MS-13, to the Bloods, Crips, 
Latin Kings, and Aryan Brotherhood. In eastern Massachusetts, for 
example, they work mostly with distributors from the Dominican 
Republic, who dominate the local drug trade. In December, a 42-year old 
Dominican woman living in Massachusetts was sentenced to 11 years in 
prison for receiving huge amounts of fentanyl and laundered cash for 
the Sinaloa Cartel. She hid some of the product in her young daughter's 
bedroom closet. The Dominican drug traffickers in particular are known 
to use the stolen identities of U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico to 
conceal their illegal presence from authorities and fraudulently obtain 
driver's licenses and welfare benefits.
    Not all of the cartels operating here are from Latin America. 
According to a federal law enforcement memo leaked to the Daily Caller, 
Chinese transnational crime groups have established about 750 illegal 
marijuana grow operations in rural areas in the states of Maine and 
Washington, often in collaboration with Mexican cartels.
    Chinese foreign nationals purchased and operated the grow houses 
with financing obtained from a handful of mortgage companies. According 
to Derek Maltz, a retired DEA agent, the Chinese groups ``take the cash 
from the [Mexican] cartels in America, and they buy these properties 
and they do these investments with cash from the Mexican cartels in our 
own country. This is part of their laundering scheme.''
    Reporters from the Maine Wire tracked down more than 100 of the 
unlicensed operations, located in unassuming houses with boarded-up 
windows and outfitted with commercial grade electrical systems, and a 
few low-profile workers lurking around, all very conspicuous to the 
neighbors. One such operation was located across the street from a 
daycare, where the children and workers, along with the other 
neighbors, were regularly subjected to the unmistakable fumes polluting 
the air. Federal authorities believe that the operations generate 
profits of more than $4.37 billion per year, much of which likely goes 
back to China.
    This business model requires creating a ``safe'' environment in 
which to operate. The cartels often create their safe space through 
violence, extortion, and even corruption of public officials. In Texas, 
large swaths of two counties have been literally taken over with what 
may be the largest settlement of illegal migrants in the country (Texas 
Massacre Happened in America's Largest Illegal Immigrant ``Colonia''--
and Major U.S. Media Won't Say So (cis.org)), in Liberty County, a two-
hour drive east of Austin, the state capital. The Gulf and Sinaloa 
cartels originally established enclaves in this area for stash houses 
for smuggled drugs and aliens. Now, with the help of unscrupulous real 
estate developers, political patrons, and the open border policies, 
this area is a massive and nearly unpoliced-able haven for the cartels, 
their employees, and their trafficked clients that has driven out most 
long-time American residents and spawned crime and violence on a Third 
World scale.

    Congress Must Act Boldly To Address Cartel Threat: Secure the 
Border, Block the Money Flow, and Use Immigration Authorities to Remove 
Operatives. Catch and release of illegal migrants on the massive scale, 
together with the dismantling of interior enforcement under Biden 
policies has overwhelmed every part of our immigration system. Both the 
Border Patrol and legal ports of entry are inundated every day in 
nearly every sector, including the northern border, which has seen 
triple-digit increases in illegal entries. Releasing illegal migrants 
instead of promptly removing them has swamped ICE's dockets and the 
already-dysfunctional immigration courts. As of the end of FY2023, 
there were 6.2 million cases on ICE's non-detained docket, of whom more 
than 617,000 have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. 
(https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-
judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-01-18-new-data-
reveal-worsening-magnitude-of-the-biden-border-crisis-and-lack-of-
interior-immigration-enforcement.pdf).
    This situation is not sustainable. Americans and legal immigrants 
are losing faith in our federal immigration agencies, and increasingly 
viewing immigration as a burden more than a benefit to our nation. 
Congress will have to act both to restore border security and 
immigration enforcement, and to address the profound consequences of 
the Biden policies that have enriched the cartels and brought their 
havoc into the United States. This will require lawmakers to make bold 
and substantial changes to our laws and give new authorities and tools 
to the law enforcement agencies that will have to confront and 
dismantle them.
    Obviously, the best defense against the foreign cartel threat is a 
secure border, and lawmakers must start there, although it will take 
more than tweaks to the asylum system to shut down the cash cow of 
migrant smuggling. Tough new enforcement measures such as those in H.R. 
2, the House border security bill are essential to this effort.
    In addition, Congress should create a new type of ``designation'' 
for the cartels similar to the approach to international terrorist 
groups, which would enable authorities to target the financial assets 
of the cartels, to utilize other government resources, including the 
military and intelligence agencies, and to bar or deport foreign 
citizen operatives from our country.
    Federal and state governments should act against the infrastructure 
that supports cartel-sponsored illegal immigration and trafficking, 
especially the money transmission networks. A grand jury investigation 
in Florida recently outlined how the vast flow of remittances of money 
from the United States to foreign countries includes within it a flow 
of money to the cartels. A significant share of this outflow of funds 
is not a transfer of funds from migrants to their families in their 
home countries, or even payments directly from the migrants to their 
smugglers, but actually huge sums of money that are being laundered by 
the cartels and disguised as remittances.
    To help disrupt this flow of money, Congress should pass a new 
``know your customer'' law that require money transmitters to collect 
secure identification from anyone sending funds abroad, in addition to 
levying a tax or fee on the funds that are sent.
    Since so many of the cartel operatives are not U.S. citizens, 
immigration laws can effectively be used against them, as long as 
immigration officers and special agents are not limited to pursuing 
convicted criminal alien felons, as has been the case under Biden. ICE 
should be empowered to launch a new program focusing exclusively on 
using immigration and customs authorities to attack the cartels, their 
businesses, and their revenue, much as it did to address the MS-13 
problem nearly 20 years ago. In addition, worksite enforcement must be 
expanded to uncover the widespread debt bondage, forced labor, and 
exploitation that was enabled by the recent laissez-faire policies.
    Finally, critical to the success of the cartel eradication program 
will be a concerted effort to rebuild the necessary partnerships 
between federal, state, and local agencies that have been eroded by the 
sanctuary city movement and the recent neglect of routine public 
safety-oriented immigration enforcement. Restoring the popular 287(g) 
delegation of authority programs--specifically, the investigative 
versions--in locations that have cartel activity and launching task 
forces to unite jurisdictions to counter this threat will help.

                                 ______
                                 

  Questions Submitted for the Record to Jessica M. Vaughan, Director, 
                     Center for Immigration Studies

             Questions Submitted by Representative Grijalva

    Question 1. I was pleased to hear you say at the hearing that you 
do not subscribe to the Great Replacement Theory. The theory and the 
language that supports its promotion is dangerous, having been cited in 
the manifestos of mass murderers and used as justification to commit 
acts of violence. During the exchange between you and Representative 
Ramirez, you said that you do not use the word, ``invasion,'' which is 
a central theme of the Great Replacement Theory. However, I am aware of 
a number of times in which you have used the term. Some examples are 
included below. I also note that these examples are a few years old 
now. Is it fair to say that you no longer use the term, ``invasion'' in 
the context of a discussion about immigration?

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    Answer. Mr. Grijalva, I am afraid you are mistaken. The 
language that you are attributing to me is in fact the language of 
others. In each of the four examples you provided, the word 
``invasion'' occurs within the headlines of articles that were written 
by various news media journalists, which I had re-posted on Twitter/X. 
Specifically, the authors of those quotes were from Conservative 
Review, Washington Post, and Breitbart. If you click on the links to 
those articles, you will see that what appears in my post is actually 
the exact language of the author or the headline writer of the news 
media outlet, not me.
    Let me explain how this works: When a social media user shares an 
article that appears on a news media outlet's website, this is done by 
clicking on the logo of a particular social media platform such as 
Twitter/X or Facebook. A selection of sharing options/logos usually 
appears near the author's byline. If the reader clicks on the Twitter/X 
logo, as occurred in the examples you provided, then this automatically 
generates a post formatted specifically for Twitter/X. In the case of 
Twitter/X, this takes the form of a new window with text that is 
generated automatically. This text typically matches the headline of 
the article. It also includes a link to the article and photograph 
(which is in blue-colored text in the image you provided), and this is 
true in the case of the posts that you provided in your question. The 
name of the original source of the article also appears in the social 
media post that is shared.
    Once again, I would like to express my disappointment that you and 
Ms. Ramirez have chosen to focus on trivia such as these social media 
posts rather than the important topic of the hearing, namely the 
disturbing spread of transnational criminal organization activity into 
tribal communities, and what can be done to help the leaders of these 
communities address this problem.
                                 ______
                               
    Dr. Gosar. Thank you, Ms. Vaughan. I am now going to 
recognize Chairman Jose for 5 minutes.

         STATEMENT OF VERLON M. JOSE, CHAIRMAN, TOHONO 
                O'ODHAM NATION, SELL, ARIZONA

    Mr. Jose. [Speaking Native language.] Good morning, 
Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member Stansbury, and distinguished 
members of the Subcommittee. I am Verlon Jose, Chairman of the 
Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona. It is an honor to testify 
before you today on behalf of my Nation and our more than 
36,000 enrolled members.
    The O'odham have lived in what is now Arizona and northern 
Mexico since time immemorial. In 1854, the international 
boundary was drawn through the middle of our ancestral 
territory. Today, the Tohono O'odham Nation shares a 62-mile 
border with Mexico.
    The Nation has long been at the forefront of border issues. 
Working in concert with the Customs and Border Protection and 
the FBI, the Tohono O'odham police department has combated drug 
traffickers for many years. In addition, since the 1970s, the 
Nation's Shadow Wolves have applied traditional tracking 
methods and apprehended countless smugglers and seized 
thousands of pounds of illegal drugs. The Shadow Wolves are the 
only Native American tracking unit in the country.
    We also have supported CBP efforts on our reservation by 
authorizing a CBP checkpoint, forward operating bases, and 
integrated fixed towers to facilitate electronic surveillance 
efforts. The Nation spends an annual average of $3 million of 
our own tribal funds to help meet the United States' border 
security responsibilities. Our police force spends about half 
its time on border issues, including the investigation of 
immigrant deaths, illegal drug seizures, and human smuggling.
    While most illegal drugs are smuggled through legal ports 
of entry, criminal cartel activity has made the effect of drug 
and migrant smuggling on the Nation worse. Smugglers have held 
tribal families hostage, damaged and stolen property, and 
recruited tribal youth to engage in smuggling activity.
    The Nation is not alone when it comes to Indian Country 
public safety concerns. Existing Federal funding is wholly 
inadequate to meet the public safety and justice needs of 
Indian Country and to support tribal law enforcement generally. 
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has estimated that billions of 
dollars in funding are needed for tribal law enforcement and 
court services, but these funding goals have never been met.
    Further, the epidemic of the drug trafficking facing the 
Nation and the rest of the country is just that, an epidemic, 
and one that requires a sustained public health response. 
Alongside the increase in drug trafficking over the past 
decade, the Nation has witnessed a steady rise in addiction and 
drug-related deaths. Unfortunately, this public health response 
has been subject to the same chronic underfunding as Indian 
Country public safety services.
    Most notoriously, the Federal Government has repeatedly 
failed to adequately fund the Indian Health Service, including 
behavioral health, mental health, and substance abuse services. 
This has left our most vulnerable members without reliable 
access to care and treatment they need.
    As has been documented, border wall construction came at 
great cost to the American taxpayer. Thanks to the no-bid 
contracts, diversions of drug interdiction, and defense 
resources we may never know the true cost. Despite the 
environmental cost of the border wall, studies have shown that 
it does not deter drug smuggling. In addition, the Nation and 
others have warned for years the border wall is particularly 
ineffective in remote geographic areas like our homelands, 
where it can easily be circumvented by climbing over, tunneling 
under, or sawing through it. CBP records prove that this is 
precisely what has taken place.
    Rather than constructing ineffective barriers, the data 
clearly shows that Federal funds would be put to much better 
use supporting tribal and Federal law enforcement, border 
security services, and public health services.
    The Nation genuinely appreciates this Subcommittee's 
interest in the impact of cartels in Indian Country. I am happy 
to answer any questions you may have.
    [Speaking Native language.] Together, we are stronger. 
Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Jose follows:] 
    
    Prepared Statement of Hon. Verlon Jose, Chairman, Tohono O'odham
                           Nation of Arizona

Introduction & Historical Background

    Good morning Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member Stansbury and 
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. I am Verlon Jose, the 
Chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona. It is an honor to 
have the opportunity to testify before you today on behalf of my Nation 
and our more than 36,000 enrolled Tribal members.
    The O'odham have lived in what is now Arizona and northern Mexico 
since time immemorial. In 1854, the international boundary between the 
United States and Mexico was drawn through the middle of our ancestral 
territory. As a result, today the Tohono O'odham Nation shares a 62-
mile border with Mexico--the second-longest international border of any 
tribe in the United States, and the longest on the southern border. 
Seventeen O'odham communities with approximately 2,000 members are 
still located in our historical homelands in Mexico. O'odham on both 
sides of the border share the same language, culture, religion and 
history, and we continue to cross the border for sacred pilgrimages and 
ceremonies at important religious and cultural sites.

               Map of Tohono O'odham Ancestral Territory

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    The Nation has long been at the forefront on border issues. 
Over the years we have developed a long-standing cooperative 
relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement 
agencies. Working in concert with CBP, our own Tohono O'odham law 
enforcement officers are regularly involved in drug interdiction and 
immigrant apprehension actions, which have been made more challenging 
due to international criminal cartel activity. Every year, the Tohono 
O'odham Nation spends its own funds to help meet the federal 
government's border security responsibilities. We have supported CBP 
efforts on our Reservation by providing lands for a checkpoint, forward 
operating bases, and integrated fixed towers to facilitate critical 
electronic surveillance efforts. 

The Nation's Unique Border Security and Law Enforcement Challenges

    The Nation faces major, unique law enforcement and public safety 
challenges due to its shared border with Mexico and the large size of 
its main Reservation. The Tohono O'odham Police Department (TOPD) must 
police a huge geographic area with limited resources, including remote 
and isolated areas and land along the border. The Nation also devotes 
significant resources to these efforts, spending an annual average of 
$3 million of its own tribal funds on border security and enforcement 
to help meet the United States' border security obligations. The Tohono 
O'odham Police Department (TOPD) responded to over 100,000 incidents in 
2023, some of which are of a general non-border criminal nature but 
many of which are related to drug seizures, illegal immigration, 
border-related criminal activity.
    Further, the Nation is responsible for the recovery and disposition 
of immigrants who have perished on our Reservation. Since 2003, our 
Nation's law enforcement has spent nearly $6 million dollars on over 
1,500 migrant death investigations and recoveries without any federal 
financial assistance. The Nation's police force typically spends about 
half of its time on border issues, including the investigation of 
immigrant deaths, illegal drug seizures, and human smuggling.\1\ In 
addition, the Nation has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars and 
hundreds of hours of police investigative time to address the impacts 
of drug trafficking, including overdose investigations, criminal 
evidence analysis, and Narcan (Naloxone HCL) training. Criminal cartel 
activity has exacerbated the negative effect of drug and migrant 
smuggling on the Nation. As the Government Accountability Office has 
reported, smugglers have held tribal families hostage, damaged and 
stolen property, and recruited tribal youth to engage in smuggling 
activity.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Government Accountability Office, GAO-24-106385, U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Improvements Needed to Workforce 
and Expansion Plans for Unit of Native American Law Enforcement 
Personnel 2 (January 30, 2024).
    \2\ Id.

    Despite strained resources, the Nation has initiated innovative law 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
enforcement solutions to meet these challenges:

     High Intensity Drug Trafficking (HIDTA) Task Force

            o  Studies show that most illicit drug seizures 
        occur at legal ports of entry (i.e., outside the Nation's 
        Reservation). Nevertheless, the Nation's is not immune from 
        illicit drug activity and its location creates unique drug 
        interdiction challenges. To address these challenges, in 2013, 
        the Nation formed and now leads a multi-agency anti-drug 
        smuggling task force staffed by Tohono O'odham Police 
        Department detectives, ICE special agents, Border Patrol 
        agents, and the FBI. This is the only tribally-led High 
        Intensity Drug Trafficking (HIDTA) Task Force in the United 
        States. In 2018, the Nation's Task Force Commander W. Rodney 
        Irby received an award recognizing him as the National 
        Outstanding HIDTA Task Force Commander.

            o  In 2020, the Nation's HIDTA Task Force 
        partnered with two other task forces to conduct a year-long 
        investigation into a major cell of the Sinaloa Cartel that was 
        smuggling drugs through the Tohono O'odham Nation. That single 
        investigation resulted in the seizure of 575,000 counterfeit 
        Oxycodone pills, 140 pounds of heroin and 9 kilograms of pure 
        fentanyl powder. The seized fentanyl powder had the capacity to 
        kill every person in Arizona eight times over. As of the first 
        quarter of this year, the Nation's HIDTA Task Force has seized 
        or assisted in the seizure of 727.9 pounds of methamphetamine, 
        97.5 kilograms of heroin, 626,303 illicit Oxycodone pills, 10 
        kilograms of fentanyl powder, and nearly 2 million dose units 
        of fentanyl.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Figures provided by the Tohono O'odham Department of Public 
Safety, 2015-2024.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Shadow Wolves, an ICE tactical patrol unit

            o  The Nation has officers that are part of the 
        Shadow Wolves, a tactical patrol unit based on our Reservation 
        that the Nation helped create in 1974. Thanks to recent 
        bipartisan legislation championed by Congressman John Katko in 
        the House and enacted in the 117th Congress, the Shadow Wolves 
        are now reclassified as ICE Special Agents.

            o  The Shadow Wolves are the only Native 
        American tracking unit in the country, and its officers are 
        known for their ability to track and apprehend immigrants and 
        drug smugglers using traditional tracking methods, including 
        ``cutting for sign,'' which involves identifying physical 
        evidence left behind by smugglers, such as footprints, tire 
        tracks, or clothing. The Shadow Wolves have apprehended 
        countless smugglers and seized thousands of pounds of illegal 
        drugs. To better combat cartel activity, the Shadow Wolves have 
        increased investigative efforts in recent years, including 
        plainclothes actions to blend in with the population.

    In addition, the Nation has entered into several cooperative 
agreements with CBP and ICE, and pursuant to numerous Tohono O'odham 
Legislative Council resolutions has authorized a number of border 
security measures on its sovereign lands to assist CBP. Some examples 
include:

     ICE office and CBP forward operating bases: Since 1974, 
            the Nation has authorized a long-term lease for an on-
            Reservation ICE office. The Nation also approved leases for 
            two CBP forward operating bases that operate on the 
            Nation's lands 24 hours, 7 days a week. One of these 
            forward operating bases (at Papago Farms) was recently 
            renovated and upgraded with state-of-the-art improvements 
            and technology, including an expanded perimeter fence, 
            helipad, and new officer living quarters and administrative 
            facilities.

     Vehicle barriers on our lands: CBP has constructed 
            extensive vehicle barriers that run the entire length of 
            the Tribal border and a patrol road that runs parallel to 
            the border.
     CBP checkpoint on our lands: The Nation has authorized a 
            CBP checkpoint on the major highway that runs through the 
            Nation.

     Integrated Fixed Towers: The Nation approved a lease of 
            its lands to allow CBP to build an Integrated Fixed Tower 
            (IFT) system that includes surveillance and sensor towers 
            with associated access roads on the Nation's southern and 
            eastern boundaries to detect and help interdict illegal 
            entries.

Additional Federal Resources are Desperately Needed to Address These 
    Challenges

    While the Nation is unique in the nature of its law enforcement and 
border security needs, it is not alone when it comes to Indian Country 
public safety concerns. Existing federal funding is wholly inadequate 
to meet the public safety and justice needs of Indian Country and to 
support tribal law enforcement generally. In 2018, the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs provided a report to Congress that estimated that $1 billion 
was needed for tribal law enforcement, with another $1 billion needed 
for tribal courts,\4\ just to provide a minimum base level of service 
to all federally recognized tribes. The estimated need has only grown 
since that time as federal appropriations levels are nowhere near the 
amounts needed.\5\ This failure to fund tribal justice systems 
undermines public safety in Indian Country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ See Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, 
Report to the Congress on Spending, Staffing, and Estimated Funding 
Costs for Public Safety and Justice Programs in Indian Country, 2018 at 
1 (July 2020).
    \5\ See National Congress of American Indians, U.S. Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs, Oversight Hearing on the President's FY 
2020 Budget Request at 4 (May 8, 2019).

    Drug Treatment Funding Deficits Exacerbate Public Safety Funding 
Deficits. The epidemic of drug trafficking facing the Nation and the 
rest of the country is just that--an epidemic, and one that requires a 
sustained public health response. Unfortunately, this public health 
response has been subject to the same chronic underfunding as Indian 
Country public safety services. Most notoriously, the federal 
government has repeatedly failed to adequately fund the Indian Health 
Service (IHS), including behavioral health, mental health, and 
substance abuse services. Alongside the increase in drug trafficking 
over the past decade, the Nation has witnessed a steady rise in 
addiction, and in drug-related deaths. Unfortunately, the same rural 
environment that imposes significant challenges for drug interdiction 
efforts also imposes barriers to tribal members seeking treatment. Due 
to a lack of funding, there is no dedicated facility to address 
addiction recovery on the Nation, and while the Nation contracts for 
these services off-Reservation, a lack of public transportation 
infrastructure means that Tribal members must drive several hours 
(sometimes 100 miles or more) to obtain these services. Moreover, as in 
any culture, Tribal members are most comfortable (a threshold 
behavioral health requirement for treatment) seeking recovery in their 
own communities, with access to traditional healing and other 
culturally appropriate methods.
    At the same time, aging IHS infrastructure is inadequate to meet 
these needs. The Nation's 50-year-old hospital in Sells, Arizona is one 
of the oldest IHS facilities. Due to its age and lack of updated 
equipment and facilities, the Nation's Sells Hospital can only address 
minor medical issues and is entirely inadequate to serve the healthcare 
needs of the Nation's members. The Sells Replacement Hospital has been 
on the IHS facilities construction priority list for over thirty years, 
since 1993. Although the Nation, beginning in FY 2018, has begun to 
receive funding for the Sells Replacement Hospital, construction has 
not yet begun, and it will be several years before construction of the 
new facility will be complete (assuming it continues to receive the 
funding that is projected in the IHS budget).

    Border Security Goals Are Better Met With Public Health And Safety 
Funding Than Border Barrier Construction. As we know, border wall 
construction came at great cost to the American taxpayer. Thanks to the 
no-bid contracts, diversion of badly needed drug interdiction and 
defense resources, and the massive environmental mitigation efforts 
required to address construction, we may never know the true cost. The 
Government Accountability Office found that by the end of 2020, the 
Army Corps of Engineers had obligated more than $10 billion to border 
wall construction alone.\6\ Billions more have and will continue to be 
needed to mitigate the environmental and cultural harms caused by 
construction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Government Accountability Office, Southwest Border: Award and 
Management of Border Barrier Construction Contracts, GAO-23-106893, at 
6 (July 23, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As the Nation and others have warned for years, the border wall is 
particularly ineffective in remote geographic areas like our homelands, 
where it can easily be circumvented by climbing over, tunneling under, 
or sawing through it. And that is precisely what has taken place. As 
noted by the Cato Institute:

        Immigrants used cheap ladders to climb over it, or they free 
        climb it. They used cheap power tools to cut through it. They 
        cut through small pieces and squeezed through, and they cut 
        through big sections and drove through. In one small section in 
        2020, they sawed through at least 18 times that Border Patrol 
        knew about in a month. They also made tunnels. Some tunnels 
        were long, including the longest one ever discovered, but some 
        were short enough just to get past the barrier.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Id.

    CBP records have revealed that the border wall is breached with 
staggering (but unsurprising) regularity--between more than 2,000 times 
and more than 4,000 times per year between 2017 and 2022.\8\ These 
breaches typically are performed with ``inexpensive power tools widely 
available at retail hardware stores,'' \9\ or with five dollar 
ladders.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ David J. Bier, ``Border Wall Was Breached 11 Times Per Day in 
2022,'' Cato Institute (December 30, 2022), available at https://
www.cato.org/blog/border-wall-was-breached-11-times-day-2022-2.
    \9\ Nick Miroff, ``Trump's border wall has been breached more than 
3,000 times by smugglers, CBP records show,'' The Washington Post 
(March, 2, 2002), available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-
security/2022/03/02/trump-border-wall-breached/.
    \10\ Jenna Romaine, ``Trump's $15 billion border wall is being 
easily defeated by $5 ladders,'' The Hill, April 22, 2021), available 
at https://thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/refugees/549758-
trumps-15-billion-border-wall-is-being-easily-defeated/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Unsurprisingly, the border wall does not effectively deter illegal 
immigration and drug trafficking. CBP data shows that most illegal 
drugs (including the vast majority--90%--of illegal fentanyl) are 
smuggled through ports of entry rather than in between them.\11\ 
Moreover, the drug couriers (known as mules) who ferry these drugs 
through ports of entry are predominantly U.S. citizens, not 
migrants.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ See, e.g., Joel Rose, ``Who is sneaking fentanyl across the 
southern border? Hint: it's not the migrants,'' NPR (August 9, 2023), 
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1191638114/fentanyl-smuggling-migrants-
mexico-border-drugs; Christian Penichet-Paul, ``Illicit Fentanyl and 
Drug Smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico Border: An Overview,'' National 
Immigration Forum (October 25, 2023) https://immigrationforum.org/
article/illicit-fentanyl-and-drug-smuggling-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-
an-overview/.
    \12\ NPR, supra n.11.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    

    Source: NPR analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
data, October 2022-June 2023.

    Rather than constructing ineffective barriers, the data clearly 
shows that federal funds would be put to much better use supporting 
tribal and federal law enforcement and border security services and 
public health services. 

Conclusion

    The Nation genuinely appreciates the Subcommittee's interest in the 
impact of cartels in Indian Country. We welcome a continued dialogue 
with you on these issues.
                                 ______
                                
Questions Submitted for the Record to Hon. Verlon Jose, Chairman, Tohono 
                        O'odham Nation of Arizona

              Questions Submitted by Representative Gosar

    Question 1. If the Tohono O'odham Nation did not have to divert so 
many resources and time to dealing with cartel activity, drug 
trafficking, and increased illegal immigration, how else could that 
funding be utilized by the Nation?

    Answer. The Nation's efforts to help meet the United States' border 
security responsibilities have come at a significant cost, and have 
contributed to the resource strain on other basic government functions 
and programs. As detailed below, funding is critically needed for 
public safety (including law enforcement and infrastructure) and public 
health. 

Public Safety

    The Tohono O'odham Police Department (TOPD) polices a huge 
geographic area (2.8 million acres)--our Reservation is one of the 
largest in the United States, roughly the size of the State of 
Connecticut. In many isolated areas on the Nation's reservation, tribal 
law enforcement personnel are the first and only responders to criminal 
activity on tribal lands. Our tribal police already face a severe lack 
of resources and staffing; added border security responsibilities 
significantly exacerbate these deficits.
    Funds currently dedicated to border security could be allocated to 
address, for example, critical infrastructure and technology needs of 
the Nation's police force and detention services. TOPD currently is 
housed in a converted 1950s-era Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) jail 
that is not equipped to handle modern law enforcement responsibilities. 
Further, the Nation's detention center is entirely inadequate to meet 
our public safety needs, forcing the Nation to house detainees in 
facilities out of state. Federal funds for correctional facilities are 
extremely limited--it takes years to advance on the BIA list of 
facilities scheduled to receive these funds. Making matters worse, TOPD 
has difficulty communicating effectively with other law enforcement 
because of a lack of interoperability throughout the Reservation. 
Upgraded information technology and equipment is desperately needed to 
improve collaboration among the Nation's emergency responders, and to 
facilitate coordinated provision of fire, law enforcement, and 
emergency response services. 

Public Health

    Because the Nation spends so much of its resources securing the 
border, we have been limited in our ability to address other pressing 
issues, including the epidemic of drug trafficking. As I noted in my 
testimony, the Nation has witnessed a steady rise in addiction and in 
drug-related deaths. Unfortunately, behavioral health, mental health, 
and substance abuse services through the Indian Health Service (IHS) 
are badly underfunded. Funding and resources currently dedicated to 
border security would be much better dedicated to the construction of a 
facility to address addiction recovery on the Nation. In addition, 
while there are three behavioral health outpatient operational sites on 
the Reservation that provide outpatient counseling/case management, 
psychiatry, and administration, the buildings are old and need to be 
updated and/or replaced to meet the needs of the clients and personnel. 
These buildings lack adequate space for client privacy, personnel, and 
storage.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ See National Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup's Request for 
the Indian Health Service Fiscal Year 2025 Budget at 206 (April 2023) 
https://www.nihb.org/resources/FY2025%20 
IHS%20National%20Tribal%20Budget%20Formulation%20Workgroup%20Requests.pd
f.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Question 2. In your opinion, how can the federal government stem 
the flow of fentanyl coming across the Southern Border and into Indian 
communities across the U.S.?

    Answer. As I noted in my testimony, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) 
data shows that most illegal drugs (including the vast majority--90%--
of illegal fentanyl) are seized through ports of entry--not along the 
border between them. It is also important to note that the fentanyl 
that ends up on the Nation is predominantly purchased elsewhere, such 
as in Phoenix and Tucson. To address this crisis, the federal 
government must increase border enforcement staffing at ports of entry 
and provide funding for the deployment of advanced technology to aid in 
drug interdiction.
    Federal funding shortfalls have severely impacted not only the 
Nation's law enforcement efforts, but CBP as well. CBP officials 
continue to experience challenges in recruiting and retaining law 
enforcement personnel.\2\ In his FY 2025 budget the President has 
requested funding to hire an additional 150 CBP Officers and 250 Border 
Patrol Agents.\3\ We support this request, as it would help address 
this shortfall. Additional funding for advanced technology systems, 
such as robust investment in Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) 
technologies like large-scale x-ray and gamma-ray imaging systems, 
radiation detection equipment, small-scale baggage x-ray systems, and 
portable hand-held devices, would also support the detection and 
interdiction of fentanyl and other opioids. Officers may perform manual 
inspections of vehicles when NII technology is not available, but it 
can be less effective.\4\ The President's FY 2025 budget request also 
calls for additional funding to build out and maintain existing and new 
Forward Operating Laboratories, which are permanent onsite labs co-
located at ports of entry and Border Patrol stations.\5\ The labs 
provide support for presumptive field testing, and were created to 
assist with conducting confirmatory testing during the opioid crisis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ See U.S. Government Accountability Office Report, GAO 21-356, 
Southwest Border Security: Actions Are Needed to Address the Cost and 
Readiness Implications of Continued DOD Support to U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection (Feb. 2021) at 41, https://www.gao.gov/assets/
d21356.pdf.
    \3\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FY 2025 Budget in Brief, 
at 30, https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2024-03/
2024_0311_fy_2025_budget_in_brief.pdf
    \4\ See U.S. Government Accountability Office Report, GAO-19-534, 
Border Infrastructure: Actions Needed to Improve Information on 
Facilities and Capital Planning at Land Border Crossings (July 2019) at 
25-26, https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-19-534.pdf.
    \5\ FY 2025 Budget in Brief, supra n.4, at 32.

    Question 3. Given the Tohono O'odham Nation's location on both 
sides of the Southern Border, how have the cartels specifically 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
targeted the Tohono O'odham Nation communities in Mexico?

    3a) What has the impact been on these communities?

    Answer. Unfortunately, on the Mexican side of the border there are 
few governmental entities advocating on behalf of the approximately 
2,000 O'odham living there, leaving many of these communities 
vulnerable and without recourse when smugglers move into communities to 
use them as staging areas, or when armed conflict erupts between 
warring cartels. The response from local police authorities in Mexico 
has been limited and can take several days, with the only real relief 
coming from the military. When cartels move into these communities or 
when conflicts flare up, O'odham become casualties of these wars--
victims of terrifying levels of violence that sometimes leave our 
members tortured and beaten. As a result, many O'odham flee their 
communities until the smuggling cycle is over (i.e. when shipments dry 
up).
    This conflict also disrupts our traditional pilgrimages and hampers 
the ability of O'odham on both sides of the border to practice our 
shared culture with and among one another. This impacts all of our 
people, resulting in long-term and incalculable damage to our customs 
and traditions.

    Question 4. Your written testimony referenced a number of methods 
that the Tohono O'odham Nation is currently working with USCBP, ICE, 
and others to patrol the border, including the use of towers, special 
agents, and a road built on your tribal land. Please explain how you 
are able to utilize these resources while also respecting the cultural 
and environmental sensitivities of the Nation.

    Answer. The Nation has entered into several cooperative agreements 
with CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and has 
authorized numerous border security measures on its sovereign lands to 
assist CBP.\6\ The success of these border security measures is the 
result of extensive education about the need to conduct government-to-
government consultation before decisions are made that will impact the 
Nation's cultural and environmental resources, the need to meaningfully 
consider information and recommendations provided by the Nation, and 
the need to recognize and consider the unique history and relationship 
that the Nation has with its sovereign lands.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ See generally Tohono O'odham Legislative Council Resolution No. 
04-095, Supporting Vehicle Barriers and All-weather Road Project Along 
the International Boundary Within the Tohono O'odham Nation (March 8, 
2004) https://www.tolc-nsn.gov/docs/Actions04/04095.pdf; No. 07-679, 
Supporting the United States Department of Homeland Security, Customs 
and Border Protection to Gain Control of the International Border 
Within the Tohono O'odham Nation with a Trial Tactical Checkpoint (Oct. 
17, 2007) https://tolc-nsn.gov/docs/Actions07/07679.pdf; No. 07-129, 
Supporting United States Department of Homeland Security, Customs and 
Border Protection Secure Border Initiative (March 14, 2007) https://
tolc-nsn.gov/docs/Actions07/07129.pdf; No. 16-560, Approving the FY 
2017 Department of Public Safety, Tohono O'odham Police Department, 
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security 
Investigations Budget (Nov. 21, 2016) https://www.tolc-nsn.gov/docs/
Actions16/16560.pdf; No. 21-400, Approval of the Memorandum of 
Understanding between the Tohono O'odham Nation and the U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations 
(Oct. 18, 2021) https://www.tolc-nsn.gov/docs/Actions21/21400.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Agency respect for tribal sovereignty allows for better 
coordination with our local districts and Tribal Historic Preservation 
Office, which in turn ensures that border security activities are 
carried out in a manner that minimizes impacts on sacred sites and 
other significant environmental and cultural resources. For example, 
after environmental study \7\ and extensive and meaningful engagement 
from CBP, the Nation consented to easements for rights-of-way over its 
lands to allow CBP to build an Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) system that 
includes ten surveillance and sensor towers and associated roads on the 
Nation.\8\ The intent of utilizing the IFT system was to reduce the 
environmental footprint of CBP and the corresponding impact on the 
Nation's resources, while simultaneously enhancing CBP surveillance 
capabilities. The IFT system has been largely successful in detecting 
and identifying items of interest and so has enabled Border Patrol 
agents to respond more efficiently and effectively to border 
incursions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ See U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Final Environmental 
Assessment for Integrated Fixed Towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation in 
the Ajo and Casa Grande Stations (March 2017) https://www.cbp.gov/
sites/default/files/assets/documents/2017-Apr/TON%20IFT%20FINAL%20EA 
%20FONSI%202017%2003%20Part%20I.pdf.
    \8\ Tohono O'odham Legislative Council Resolution No. 19-088, 
Consenting to Grants of Easement for Rights-of-Way across Nation's 
lands for the United States Customs and Border Protection's Integrated 
Fixed Tower Project (March 25, 2019) https://www.tolc-nsn.gov/docs/
Actions19/19088.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The installation of the IFT system, in combination with dedicated 
funding for road maintenance, also has reduced the negative 
environmental, cultural, and public safety impacts that border security 
imposes on the Nation and its members. The Nation, like most of Indian 
Country, faces overwhelming road maintenance and safety issues. BIA's 
FY 2025 budget justification acknowledges that there is a ``rising 
deferred maintenance backlog'' and that only 13 percent of BIA roads 
are in acceptable condition.\9\ CBP uses about 350 miles of the 
Nation's roads for their border-related activities, which has added 
significantly to the level of wear and disrepair. As a result, many of 
our roads have sink holes, potholes, broken and cracked pavement, and 
washed-out bridges, making these roads dangerous for our members and 
for tribal and federal law enforcement and agency personnel, including 
CBP. During monsoon season, flooding completely washes out roads, 
stranding our members, including children on school buses, preventing 
access for emergency vehicles and isolating communities. Tribal members 
have been killed by flooding while traveling on these roads. With the 
deployment of IFTs, CBP is able to be more deliberate in its deployment 
of patrols and the use of tribal roads. In addition, after 
consultation, and by agreement with BIA (which has legal responsibility 
for road maintenance) and the Nation's Chukut Kuk District (the tribal 
district with the majority of our borderland), CBP has dedicated 
resources to provide road maintenance and repair on the 
Reservation.\10\ We have been appreciative of Congress' provision of 
crucial legislative language that made this financial cooperation 
between CBP and BIA possible. In sum, this respect for and attention to 
the Nation's sovereignty and community is a win both for border 
security and environmental and cultural protection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ BIA FY 2025 Budget Justifications and Performance Information 
at IA-TG-3 and IA-TG-7, available at https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/
files/media_document/fy2025-508-bia-greenbook. pdf.
    \10\ See Tohono O'odham Legislative Council Resolution No. 20-422, 
Approving the Bureau of Indian Affairs to Conduct Road Repairs of 
Specific Roads on the Tohono O'odham Nation Using Funding Transferred 
from the United States Department of Homeland Security Customs and 
Border Protection (Dec. 8, 2020) https://www.tolc-nsn.gov/docs/
Actions20/20422.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Conversely, there are numerous other examples where the federal 
government has not respected tribal sovereignty. The Nation repeatedly 
attempted to engage and consult with the prior Administration regarding 
border wall construction and potential damage to the Nation's sacred 
sites and other resources, but our efforts were generally rebuffed, met 
with extremely limited responses and no meaningful consultation. As a 
result, CBP rushed ahead with border wall construction in our ancestral 
homelands and proceeded to destroy the Nation's culturally significant 
sites and cultural resources, tribal archeological resources, sacred 
sites and even human remains. The construction also negatively impacted 
plants and animals of importance to the Nation including some 
endangered species like the jaguar that are sacred to American Indian 
tribes, preventing them from moving freely within their habitat and 
interfering in their migration patterns. The border wall construction 
was expedited by using authority under Section 102(c) of the Illegal 
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act to waive laws that 
would otherwise have helped to protect sacred sites and culturally 
significant areas, the environment, and property rights. The Nation 
repeatedly expressed grave concerns about these harms,\11\ requested 
meaningful dialogue,\12\ and urged caution in testimony before Congress 
\13\ and in multiple letters \14\ and court filings.\15\ Unfortunately, 
these concerns were entirely ignored.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ See, e.g., Tohono O'odham Legislative Council Resolution No. 
17-053, Border Security and Immigration Enforcement on the Tohono 
O'odham Nation (Feb. 7, 2017) http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2017/02/17-053-Border-Security-and-Immigration-Enforcement-on-
the-Tohono-Oodham-Nation.pdf; No. 18-032, Opposing Federal Legislation 
that Promotes Construction of Border Wall, Waives Laws, and Undermines 
Tribal Jurisdiction (Jan. 2018) https://tolc-nsn.gov/docs/actions18/
18032.pdf.
    \12\ See Tohono O'odham Comments on DHS Consultation Policy (May 
25, 2021).
    \13\ See Tohono O'odham Testimony, House Natural Resources 
Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples Hearing on the border wall's impact 
on tribal sacred sites (Feb. 26, 2020) https://www.congress.gov/116/
meeting/house/110587/witnesses/HMTG-116-II24-Wstate-NorrisJrN-2020 
0226.pdf; Tohono O'odham Testimony, House Homeland Security 
Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation and Operations Hearing on 
the border wall's impact on tribal landowners (Feb. 27, 2020) https://
www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110571/witnesses/HHRG-116-HM11-
Wstate-NorrisN-20200227.pdf.
    \14\ See Letter from BIA Regional Director Bryan Bowker to the 
Nation requesting information on the border wall's impacts (May 2021); 
Tohono O'odham Response to Regional Director Bowker's May 2021 letter 
(June 3, 2021)
    \15\ See, e.g., Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities 
Coalition v. Donald J. Trump, No. 4:19-cv-00892-HSG, Amicus Curiae 
Brief of Tohono O'odham Nation in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for 
Supplemental Preliminary Injunction (June 18, 2019, N.D. Ca.) (Dkt. No. 
172); Amicus Curiae Brief of Tohono O'odham Nation in Support of 
Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (October 18, 2019) 
(Dkt. No. 215).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion

    The Nation shares the federal government's dedication to border 
security. We believe that the measures we have taken to assist CBP and 
the conduct our own law enforcement efforts are necessary to protect 
the Nation specifically and the United States generally. We remain 
committed to border security and enforcement with the intent that the 
Nation's sovereignty be respected and preserved.
                                 ______
                                 
    Mr. Caldwell. Thank you, Chairman Jose. I now recognize 
President Stiffarm for 5 minutes.

        STATEMENT OF JEFFREY STIFFARM, PRESIDENT, FORT 
          BELKNAP INDIAN COMMUNITY, HARLEM, MONTANA

    Mr. Stiffarm. Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would 
like to start off by thanking Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member 
Stansbury, Congressman Rosendale, and Congressman Zinke. I 
appreciate your time. I appreciate you listening to us and our 
concerns on what we have to address in Indian Country.
    First and foremost, I would like to, if I am allowed, 
submit on behalf of the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana, our 
neighbors, our relatives to the west of us, written testimony, 
what happened to them, how ironic it was. A couple of weeks 
ago, they had a cartel killing in Rocky Boy that killed two 
tribal members. And I would like to submit their testimony on 
their behalf of Chairman Harlan Gopher, if I am allowed to do 
that, sir.
    Dr. Gosar. Without objection.
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you. First of all, I would like to 
start off by addressing the cartels in Indian Country. You 
know, this ain't new. This has been going on for decades. I can 
say it is a little bit too late, but it is not. At least we are 
addressing it today. At least we are going to bring these 
issues to the forefront of what is happening to our people back 
home in Montana and other Indian reservations across this 
country.
    They target Indian reservations because they blend in, 
because of the lack of law enforcement and because of the lack 
of law enforcement we have. It is a lack of money, lack of 
funds, lack of officers. Our reservations about 700,000 acres, 
and most of the time we have one officer to cover our 
reservation. And I have 20 years of being a police officer back 
home, so I know the history and the concerns that we have.
    What I have piled up here right now are studies, things 
that were done by Congress in the Law and Order Commission Act 
of 2013. Broken promises. Not invisible. These were things done 
years and years ago, studies, things looked at about Indian 
Country, but nothing has ever been done to fix these problems 
that have already been addressed and looked at, pushed by the 
wayside, like my brother said. We will talk about it today and 
forget it tomorrow. That is what I learned about being a 
politician and coming here to DC and speaking. This is probably 
about my sixth or seventh time testifying in hearings. I have 
seen no results yet to this day.
    So, this is true to where it stands, on your broken 
promises, our broken treaties. That is how our people feel back 
home. We are left alone to fight this battle against some 
hundreds of thousands of cartel members coming into this 
country, coming onto our reservation, our homes, raping and 
murdering our people, using that place as a hideout.
    But what really irks me is we don't have help from the FBI, 
the Border Patrol, the DEA that has jurisdiction on Federal 
land, which are reservations.
    Our FBI, we meet with them once a year, and they come to 
our tribal chambers and they visit with us. And I ask them, I 
ask those FBI agents, ``What tribes are you serving here?'' 
They don't even know that. That tells me they don't care. 
Reservations are a stepping stone for agents to move up. Same 
with the Border Patrol. They don't come to Fort Belknap. They 
don't go to Fort Peck. They don't go to Rocky Boy, Blackfeet 
Reservation to patrol, to look for illegal aliens. They don't. 
I know that from personal experience. Same with the FBI. They 
come there when the serious crime happens. They take their 
pictures, they write their reports, and they are gone. That is 
about it.
    That is one thing you guys really need to look at besides 
the lack of funding in Indian Country, is the FBI and the 
Border Patrol doing their jobs in Indian Country, and helping 
us protect and serve our own people.
    One last thing to add is, we send billions of dollars 
overseas for wars. You can't even send millions to the tribes 
to save our people. Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Stiffarm follows:] 
    
  Prepared Statement of President Jeffrey Stiffarm, on behalf of the 
Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes of the Fort Belknap Indian Community

    Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member Stansbury, Montana Congressman 
Rosendale, and Members of the Subcommittee. My name is Jeffrey 
Stiffarm, President of the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre 
(Aaniih) Nations of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. I have over 20 
years of Law Enforcement experience serving our Indian Communities. I 
appreciate the opportunity to be invited to this important hearing 
today which is examining the impacts of Drug Cartels Targeting Indian 
Country--and specifically the Fort Belknap Indian Community.
    The Fort Belknap Reservation is located in north central Montana 
and is comprised of 652,000 acres (1,014 square miles) almost as large 
as the State of Rhode Island, and has nearly 7,000 members living on or 
near our Reservation. Fort Belknap is 40 miles south of the Canadian 
Border. Fort Belknap Law Enforcement is comprised of 9 Officers to 
protect and serve our entire reservation 24/7. Similarly, Montana is 
147,040 square miles--Montana is slightly larger than Japan. It is the 
4th largest State in the United States behind, Texas, Alaska and 
California. In 2024, it is reported that only 20 DEA Agents cover the 
entire State of Montana. The cartels know this--so it is easy for them 
to take over reservations.
    These Drug Cartels are specifically targeting Indian Country 
because of a dangerous combination of rural terrain, history of 
addiction, under-resourced law enforcement, legal loopholes, sparsely 
populated communities, and exorbitant profits, and it is devastating 
Tribal reservations. Profits for these cartels soar the farther they 
get from the southern border. A fentanyl pill that costs less than 
$1.00 Mexico and southern states, can go for over $100 on our 
Reservation.
    It is repeatedly reported to our Tribal Government that drug 
cartels are targeting our Native women and using homes on reservations 
as safe houses and distribution hubs. They are able to operate with 
impunity because of complex jurisdictional rules and the fact that 
Tribal law enforcement agencies, such as our's, have been under-
resourced and under-staffed for decades. This problem is also directly 
connected to the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) 
crisis, as communities are reporting more instances of sexual abuse, 
human trafficking, child abuse and domestic violence. And it creates at 
least a perception of a Reservations as being a scary place of 
lawlessness.
    This hearing today stresses the importance of the ongoing work 
Congress has in its important role in combatting drug trafficking in 
Indian Country. Congress funds Foreign Countries to Protect Themselves: 
we need Congress to provide funds to our First Nations to Protect 
Ourselves. Our Own Homeland should be the TOP Priority for Safety. 
United States Citizens need to feel and be protected throughout the 
United States. Why should we be afraid in our own Country? As Congress 
funds billions in federal aid to foreign countries to protect its 
borders and to kill. Indian Country needs the funding to protect our 
Borders in order to save Lives. Cartels threaten and kill our people. 
Yet nothing is ever done about it. Especially by the FBI.
    I put the blame on the drug and cartel crisis squarely on the 
shoulders of the Federal Government. The FBI doesn't do anything on the 
reservation unless we have a death or serious crime. If that happens 
then they are only here for a short period collecting evidence! They 
are reactive--not proactive. The FBI has jurisdiction over non-tribal 
members, our tribal officers' hands are tied because they only have 
jurisdiction over tribal members. The government knew that cartels were 
moving onto the reservations but did nothing. The other government 
jurisdiction that failed us is the Border Patrol. They know Mexican or 
other illegal aliens are on reservations but do nothing. Our People get 
harassed when they cross the Border with sacred objects even though our 
border-crossing rights are supposed to be protected by the Jay-Treaty, 
yet the cartel seem to be able to go right through.
    Tribal law enforcement is seriously underfunded by the federal 
government and by BIA. Officers lack equipment and are untrained to 
handle this crisis and most importantly underfunded. In the 638-
contracting process, the federal government offered $1.2 Million 
dollars to Fort Belknap to administer our own Law Enforcement in 1997, 
and 27 years later in 2023 offers $1.3 Million. Other similar Tribes to 
Fort Belknap, have been awarded over $5 million for Law Enforcement 
Services. Due to this incredible disparity, the Fort Belknap Community 
has a pending federal lawsuit against the U.S. Government due to its 
breach of contract and trust responsibilities owed to our People. The 
United States has trust responsibilities that is not being met in 
particular FBI and border patrol.

    As recent as November 2023, the Not Invisible Act Commission 
Congressional Report, the Commission reported an estimate of $1.4 
Billion Dollars to adequately fund Public Safety and Justice in Indian 
Country. Similarly, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) 
released a report in 2018 finding that:

        Federal funding for Native American programs across the 
        government remains grossly inadequate to meet the most basic 
        needs the federal government is obligated to provide. Native 
        American program budgets generally remain a barely perceptible 
        and decreasing percentage of agency budgets. Since 2003, 
        funding for Native American programs has mostly remained flat, 
        and in the few cases where there have been increases, they have 
        barely kept up with inflation or have actually resulted in 
        decreased spending power. In its annual, statutorily required 
        report, the BIA acknowledges that tribal police, courts, and 
        detention facilities are currently funded at a fraction of the 
        estimated need. It is further noted that: despite this 
        recognition, the BIA has never requested funding at levels 
        sufficient to meet these needs. The DOJ, meanwhile, was unable 
        to provide an estimate to the Commission of the need for its 
        programs and services.

    Tribal Nations should have the authority to address crime on their 
lands. Congress must take decisive action to overturn the Oliphant 
decision and address the sentencing limitations of the Indian Civil 
Rights Act, so that Tribes have the authority to prosecute non-Indians 
who commit crimes within their jurisdiction and appropriately hold 
offenders accountable for their crimes. We cannot continue to allow 
cartels to take advantage of the holes in our justice system. I 
encourage you to do everything possible to ensure we have the tools and 
resources we need to keep our communities safe.

    We need funding to protect our Homeland, require federal agency 
coordination and cooperation, tightening of international borders, and 
lastly we need Congress to fully restore Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction 
in Indian Country. Congress has several Commission reports that all 
seem to say the same thing: Fund Indian Country and Effectively 
Coordinate Federal Resources. See:

     November 1, 2023, Not One More Findings & Recommendations 
            of the Not Invisible Act Commission

     November 2018, Broken Promises: Continuing Federal 
            Shortfall for Native Americans, Briefing Report to 
            President Trump, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

     November 2013, A Road Map for Making Native America Safer, 
            Indian Law and Order Commission Report to the President and 
            Congress of the United States

    I thank you for your time and I am happy to answer any questions.
                                 ______
                                
    Dr. Gosar. Thank you very much. I am going to recognize the 
Chairman for the Full Committee, Mr. Westerman, for his 5 
minutes.

          STATEMENT OF THE HON. BRUCE WESTERMAN, A REP-
            RESENTATIVE IN  CONGRESS FROM  THE STATE OF 
            ARKANSAS

    Mr. Westerman. Thank you, Chairman Gosar, and thank you to 
the witnesses today.
    This is a hearing I didn't expect we would ever have, 
talking about cartels operating in Indian Country. But just 
recently we did a field hearing down in Southern Arizona, in 
Cochise County, and Sheriff Mark Daniels made a statement that 
was, I think, the takeaway message from that hearing when he 
said that we are no longer dealing with an illegal immigration 
problem, we are dealing with an organized crime problem, and an 
organized crime problem that reaches from sea to shining sea, 
which includes Indian Country.
    I know in some other trips I have made to the border, I was 
appalled to fly the Southern border in a helicopter and have 
the Border Patrol point out hideouts up in the mountains where 
the cartels operated with radio equipment to tell the mules or 
the coyotes where the Border Patrol was operating and radioing 
to them, tell them how to avoid being caught. And I thought 
that is crazy that this is happening on the U.S. side of the 
border, that these Mexican cartels are setting up camp on U.S. 
land to run human trafficking and drug trafficking into our 
country.
    And it is not getting better from anything that I have 
seen. As a matter of fact, Sheriff Daniels also said that the 
cartels not only control the southern side of the U.S. border, 
they also control the northern side of the U.S. border. So, I 
think this is a very fitting hearing that we are having.
    And when I ask a question, if you want to elaborate on the 
extent of cartels operating in the United States, I would be 
glad to hear that, as well. But President Stiffarm, your 
testimony bravely depicts the ongoing threats that your tribe 
experiences from the dangerous cartels that operate in your 
communities. Many Americans may not be aware of the extent of 
cartel presence right here in the heart of America. Can you 
please describe just how devastating this problem has become 
across Indian Country, and particularly in Fort Belknap 
Reservation?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you for the question, Congressman 
Westerman, and we deal with it on a daily basis, whether it is 
an overdose, mental health, domestic violence, or serious 
assaults.
    And one thing that we really seem to overlook all the time 
are the death threats we get from the cartel members. We had 
the tribal leader from Montana that declined to testify here 
today because he received death threats that he was going to 
testify.
    Why would we be afraid to live in our own country when we 
are getting threats from foreign nationals from across the 
border? How strong their reach is. How are they are allowed to 
come into this country and to threaten and kill us in our own 
backyard? That is a huge issue, not only for our tribal 
membership, whether it is here or Fort Peck or Rocky Boy, but 
it is you all's backyard. It is your family, your relatives, 
your neighbors.
    But in Fort Belknap, what little officers we do have, they 
have been trying to be proactive without any help from the BIA, 
without any help from the FBI, without any help from the Border 
Patrol or the DEA. And we receive grant money, we have two drug 
dogs, two canines that are trying to help us curb the flow of 
fentanyl, methamphetamines, and we had some pretty good 
seizures.
    One of our biggest issues is we don't have jurisdiction 
over----
    Mr. Westerman. President Stiffarm, I am sorry to cut you 
off, but I am on limited time here.
    Mr. Stiffarm. OK.
    Mr. Westerman. But you said something very profound that I 
just want to make sure to get it on the record that you 
testified before Congress that there are tribal members who 
have been threatened with death if they come to Congress and 
testify against the cartels.
    Mr. Stiffarm. Yes.
    Mr. Westerman. The cartels have threatened them with death 
in this country.
    Mr. Stiffarm. Yes, yes.
    Mr. Westerman. My goodness, that might be enough just to 
end the hearing right there. That is horrible, to think that an 
American citizen has been threatened by a foreign cartel if 
they come to Congress and testify about what that cartel is 
doing on American soil.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentleman, and I now recognize the 
gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Garcia, for his 5 minutes.
    Mr. Garcia. Thank you, Chairman Gosar, for the opportunity 
to join this hearing, and thank you to all the witnesses, 
especially the elected representatives of their Nations. I 
would like to begin with my first question to Chairman Jose.
    Chairman, what sort of programs and services does the 
Tohono O'odham Nation currently have to help your community 
deal with the addiction to illicit substances like fentanyl?
    What is available? And I am referring to things like 
treatment centers, outpatient centers, and those types of 
services.
    Mr. Jose. Well, Chairman, members of the Committee, thank 
you for the question.
    We have a Tohono O'odham health department. And in that 
department, we have a behavioral health program. It is very 
limited, in terms of maybe a clinical director and some staff 
in terms of counselors and so forth. We do not have a treatment 
center. We would like a treatment center. So, basically, it is 
just some counseling.
    Most of the stuff is referred out to Tucson or other areas, 
where they are able to provide more adequate substance abuse 
training or go into a treatment center because we do not have 
any. So, it is very limited. We want to build, we are hoping to 
build a more robust behavioral health program so we can offer 
those things. Most of the time it is either culturally related 
or just peer counseling to try to address the needs of our 
members.
    Thank you for the question.
    Mr. Garcia. Thank you for that. And there isn't a treatment 
center. Are there other obstacles that you currently are facing 
that prevent members of the Nation from accessing these 
services?
    Mr. Jose. Chairman of the Committee, members of the 
Committee, thank you for the question.
    Yes, in a perfect world, if we had all those things that we 
could, like a treatment center and so forth, you have to look 
at the overall picture. Even currently in just domestic 
services, we can't go down our roads. Our roads, 
transportation, we have 2.8 million acres of land there. It 
takes about 2 hours to drive from one end to the other, north 
or south, east or west. So, we are limited on transportation, 
we are limited on housing.
    There are a lot of impacts that face our members there. So, 
as we are attempting to address those issues, it isn't just one 
thing that is needed. We are faced with various challenges to 
address the behavioral health needs of the Tohono O'odham 
Nation.
    Mr. Garcia. Chairman, it is a vast area of land populated 
with 36,000 people. And if you could, once again, because I 
think you did it in your testimony, emphasize what Federal 
Government support to the tribe in responding to the various 
treatment needs in the community, what would that be?
    Mr. Jose. Thank you for the question. And I will echo, as 
well as some of the other tribal leaders here, it is that I 
believe there needs to be more direct funding with tribes. 
Sometimes, we get caught up in the bureaucracies, the red tape 
of funding. And if there is Federal funding available, it is 
usually, OK, here is a grant opportunity, you have 30 days to 
apply for it, and you have to get back, and then the tribal 
processes are a little bit difficult.
    So, No. 1, I believe true consultation with tribes to 
address those needs. Because who is better to address the needs 
than the people themselves? So, when we have that consultation 
and we have that direct funding, we are able to really put the 
money where it works, because you can build something but if it 
is not designed to address the local community, I mean, I 
wouldn't come in and rearrange your house for you. I would work 
with you, or I would have you rearrange your house yourself, or 
build your house yourself.
    So, what we need, what tribes need, again, is true 
consultation, direct funding to cut out all the red tape and 
the limitations that we have with the Federal challenges that 
we have in expenditures and so forth. We are not asking for a 
full rein. Tribes are accountable. So, with that, we want to 
work together with the government.
    Mr. Garcia. And in the 5 seconds I have, Chairman, does the 
Nation have the capacity to deliver those services if funded 
directly?
    Yes, sir.
    Mr. Jose. We do.
    Mr. Garcia. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentleman from Illinois. The 
gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Carl, is recognized for his 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Carl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the 
panel that come to speak to us. I appreciate it. I know how 
valuable your time is. Let's address a pressing issue that has 
been affecting our national communities as a whole.
    The crisis at the border is not just about illegal 
immigrants anymore. It is about the influx of dangerous 
substance like fentanyl, which is creating havoc on American 
lives. I know in my community I get tired of hearing of the 
deaths of people that I know, or their families that I know.
    Our President's failed immigration policy has turned every 
community into a border community, allowing international 
criminal cartels to target illegal drugs, including fentanyl, 
into our nation. Most people don't realize, but this little 
pack of Sweet'N Low here, that is enough fentanyl, if it was 
pure fentanyl, to kill 250 grown men. It doesn't take much. And 
when you start talking about seizing a pound of fentanyl, that 
is a lot of death, a lot of death.
    Today, we have the opportunity to hear from folks who 
experience these challenges firsthand. President Biden's policy 
has benefited these criminal cartels, allowing them to target 
Indian Country with easy-access drug-distributing networks. The 
result has been a surge in violence, crime, and drug overdose.
    Mr. Stiffarm, as President of, is it Fort Belknap? Did I 
pronounce that correctly? Thank you sir. Belknap Indian 
community. Could you share how the crisis at the border and the 
influx of dangerous drugs has specifically impacted your 
community?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Well, because of the lack of funding for law 
enforcement, we don't have the officers to adequately patrol, 
protect, and serve our community members. Our officers are 
getting burnt out. Our hospitals are getting over-run with 
patients that have either overdosed on fentanyl or drug 
addiction or alcohol addiction. So, we are running out of 
resources to combat the problem.
    And with the lack of assistance from, I would say the 
Federal Government, FBI and the Border Patrol, the DEA, even 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs to come in and assist us in 
fighting these issues that we have, we are fighting a losing 
battle, and the cartels are winning, the drug dealers are 
winning, and they are over-running our reservations.
    And I am sure you know, Councilman Bryce Kirk has the same 
issues in Fort Peck. They are our relatives and we have family 
there.
    So, the cartels, they either come in from Billings or they 
come in from Yakima, the drugs. And they will go into the 
Blackfeet Reservation, then over into Rocky Boy, into Fort 
Belknap, and then over to Fort Peck. We call it along the High 
Line. That is how they bring in their drugs. Each drug dealer 
knows one another and each reservation. And they switch up 
vehicles, they switch up places where they distribute.
    And in Fort Belknap, when we know there is a drug shipment 
coming in, there is a call that comes in and says somebody 
jumped in a river, or says there is a car crash in a remote 
part of the reservation. So, all our resources are directed to 
that issue. Then in the back door, the drugs come in. And we 
don't have enough manpower to fight that problem, and it is a 
lack of money, a lack of resources, and a lack of help.
    Mr. Carl. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you.
    Mr. Carl. Mr. Chairman, what I am hearing here is a lack of 
resources from our FBI, from all the government agencies 
supporting this. Have we ever asked them to come and talk to us 
and tell us what they do and how they do it? How much money is 
allotted towards that?
    I mean, can we not hold them responsible for actually doing 
this? And if it is more money, we can focus on the money 
portion, but we can't make an agency go out and do their job 
unless we know what they are doing.
    Dr. Gosar. Well, these are some of the reasons why I wanted 
to have some type of a hearing process, particularly on the 
tribes and sovereignty, to elicit what is proper that should be 
given to them, how it should be accountable, and how they can 
be working together with the tribes.
    Mr. Carl. Well, I highly encourage that we bring them to 
the table and start asking these questions.
    Ms. Stansbury. Would the gentleman yield?
    Mr. Carl. I do, I yield.
    Ms. Stansbury. So, just to answer this last question, both 
the Homeland Security and the Oversight Committee have held 
extensive investigations and recorded interviews with Border 
Patrol, FBI, and others to help answer these questions. And 
those records are available.
    And what we have heard over and over again, including from 
all five chiefs of Border Patrol, is they need more resources, 
which is why the supplemental that was put before the Senate 
and is sitting here in the House waiting to be passed is asking 
for more Border Patrol agents.
    Mr. Carl. But they are asking more for processing people, 
not for actually, the enforcement side.
    Ms. Stansbury. But to answer the specific question, 
numerous committees have actually spoken directly to the law 
enforcement agencies. So, yes.
    Mr. Carl. I would like to ask them those questions myself, 
though.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. OK, I thank the gentleman from Alabama. The 
gentlewoman from Illinois, Mrs. Ramirez, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mrs. Ramirez. Good morning, and I thank the Subcommittee 
for allowing me to participate in today's hearing.
    Ms. Vaughan, I know we have met in Homeland Security 
before, so it is good to see you again. I want to start with 
you, and I wanted to ask you a question. Do you believe in the 
great replacement theory? Yes or no.
    Ms. Vaughan. I don't know what that is. Can you explain it?
    Mrs. Ramirez. Yes, sure. The great replacement theory is a 
White supremacist conspiracy theory that perpetrates the 
racist, xenophobic, nativist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic 
falsehood that non-White immigrants are being brought into the 
United States and other Western countries to repopulate 
majority White countries and disempower White voters to achieve 
a political agenda, and to specifically bring upon the genocide 
of White people. Central to that theory is the idea that non-
White people are invading the United States.
    Ms. Vaughan, you have used----
    Ms. Vaughan. No, I do not believe in that.
    Mrs. Ramirez. OK, well, thank you for your response.
    Ms. Vaughan. I would reject that.
    Mrs. Ramirez. You have used invasion rhetoric in discussing 
immigration multiple times.
    Ms. Vaughan. Excuse me? Can you give me an example of when 
I have done that?
    Mrs. Ramirez. I am speaking. When I ask you a question, you 
can go ahead and answer. I am actually speaking now.
    Ms. Vaughan. OK, I just----
    Mrs. Ramirez. Ma'am, I am going to continue with my 
remarks. A number of times I have heard you use the words 
``invasion,'' and----
    Ms. Vaughan. When? I don't use that term. That is not 
appropriate to the discussion.
    Mrs. Ramirez. It is not appropriate. It is not appropriate 
but it has been used.
    Ms. Vaughan. I don't see how you can attribute that to me--
--
    Mrs. Ramirez. Ma'am, I am going to reclaim my time. This is 
my time.
    Ms. Vaughan. Well, you are putting words in my mouth.
    Mrs. Ramirez. I am reclaiming my time.
    Dr. Gosar. Let's get back to the decorum of the House, 
please.
    Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you. You may be aware that there is 
considerable evidence linking great replacement theory rhetoric 
with mass murders, including the targeting of the Latino 
community.
    Ms. Vaughan. I am not aware of that evidence.
    Mrs. Ramirez. Ma'am, I am now talking to all of us.
    Ms. Vaughan. Well, you are talking to me.
    Mrs. Ramirez. I am going to reclaim my time.
    Sir?
    Dr. Gosar. Ms. Vaughan, if you will, just let her finish 
her questions. We will make sure you get ample time to rebut.
    Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you. We have heard, including the 
targeting of the Latino community in El Paso, Black Americans 
in Buffalo, and Jews in Pittsburgh and in Poway, California, 
for example. Shooters have cited this in their manifestos, and 
I believe that words matter and their great replacement 
rhetoric is harmful. It dehumanizes millions of people seeking 
safety, protection, and refuge. It dehumanizes people like my 
mother, Maria Ramirez, who crossed the border pregnant with me, 
and it dehumanizes me. A dehumanizing rhetoric endangers us 
all, and we must categorically condemn it.
    I want to pivot, now that I have been able to give the 
definition and talk a little bit more about it, to focus on our 
time together here, which is addressing the needs of Indigenous 
and tribal communities. I would like to direct my next question 
to Chairman Jose.
    Chairman Jose, how can the Federal Government improve 
access to critical services such as health care, counseling, 
shelters, and legal advocacy for individuals impacted by drug 
trafficking crimes predominantly perpetrated by U.S. citizens 
on tribal lands?
    Mr. Jose. Thank you for the question.
    How we can work, again, is like the resources that lack not 
only on the Nation but in Indian Country are valuable resources 
that we could utilize to build these things that are going to 
help our communities.
    We need to become not so much dependent on the overall 
government, but we also need to do some of that work. And if we 
are provided the right resources, we can build some of those 
things. We can manage some of those treatment centers, to be 
proactive rather than reactive.
    We need to spend more funding in building schools, 
libraries, and treatment centers than spending money on 
building prisons, jails, and all that, because that is after 
the fact. So, when we have true consultation and direct funding 
resources, we can do those things. Those are the things that we 
need.
    And it is not just building a building. We are talking 
about access in terms of housing, in terms of roads, in terms 
of just basic infrastructure that we can do. It is different on 
reservations because of the lack of infrastructure. So, I 
believe that, in order to address those issues, we need to work 
together. We need to figure out a system that is not going to 
block tribal communities from advancing and addressing the 
issues that it has.
    Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you, Chairman. I, for one, hope that we 
don't pit migrants seeking asylum and tribal communities in our 
nation. We have an obligation for both communities to ensure 
that our words build instead of break, and that our actions 
affirm the self-determination, safe, healthy, and vibrant 
community. So, thank you for your response.
    I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. Ms. Vaughan, would you like some time to 
respond? I know you were attacked, so I will let you respond.
    Ms. Vaughan. Yes. The implications about me and my 
organization and our work are completely wrong. We reject the 
ideas that she was attributing to us, and I find this to be a 
distraction in a discussion of a really serious public policy 
problem, public safety problem that certainly is very serious 
to the representatives of Indian Country here and a distraction 
from that.
    We need to be able to face these issues without name-
calling or maligning of motives.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank you. I am going to now yield to Mr. 
Collins, the Vice Chair of the Committee, for his 5 minutes.
    Mr. Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Vaughan, in my district, the 10th District of Georgia, 
we had a very horrific murder a few weeks ago at the University 
of Georgia with Laken Riley, and it was committed. Ibarra is 
the one that they have arrested for it. He actually started out 
crossing the border illegally, was processed, let go, went to 
New York City, a sanctuary city, committed a few crimes, and 
decided to pack up his enterprise and come to Athens, Georgia, 
where he continued that, and it escalated.
    He was actually arrested for shoplifting a few days before 
he committed the murder, and went from just being released on 
that to being accused of committing a very heinous murder, 
which is why we had the Laken Riley Act, and it passed the 
House here with bipartisan support. It is sitting in the 
Senate, where it should pass the Senate. It is a great bill. It 
is going to give tools to law enforcement to help them contact 
ICE to do their job and to give them one more tool where they 
can just come in and detain and deport these people.
    And I know you are an expert on immigration issues, and you 
support the people that come here legally, but not the violent 
criminals who want to come in and do our country and our people 
harm and take advantage of this Administration's lack of 
securing that border. What, in your opinion, can we do to help 
stop the flow of these violent criminal cartels that are coming 
in and increasing drug dependency and literally murdering and 
harming American citizens?
    Ms. Vaughan. Thank you for the question.
    There are a number of things that can be done to address 
this problem, and many of them are within the realm of the 
President's authorities for executive action, for example, to 
resume construction of the border barriers which do help in 
areas where they can be patrolled. It is not appropriate all 
across the border, but it is very helpful at preventing, for 
example, cartels from moving huge packages of illicit drugs or 
other contraband through with impunity, and it adds response 
time for the Border Patrol.
    Mr. Collins. Thank you.
    Ms. Vaughan. But, really, the biggest factor is ending the 
catch-and-release policies that are providing the motivation 
for people around the world to turn themselves and their life 
savings over to a criminal smuggling organization because they 
know that the chances are huge that they are going to be 
released and allowed to stay here indefinitely. That is what is 
enriching the cartels.
    Mr. Collins. I think you hit the nail on the head. 
Immediately what could be done is the Administration could 
reinstate those eight Executive Orders that they rescinded, and 
that would secure that border.
    Mr. Kirk, Mr. President, Chairman, I can see it in your 
face. I mean, you can see the concern, the disgust, the 
determination that you have to be here to try to get something 
done.
    Mr. Chairman, I tell you, the Federal Government, in their 
infinite wisdom, think that they can control and do everything 
for everybody, when in fact the people on the side of this 
aisle, we agree with local control and pushing things back down 
to the local level where you make the decisions.
    Mr. Kirk, I wanted to just go real quickly because I am 
running out of time. While the Laken Riley Act is not going to 
prevent and solve the immigration problem, it is going to help 
with tools. I have small counties in my district, and we are 
facing the same thing, over a death a month, less than 15,000 
people, while it is not as vast as your area.
    And I was also at Cochise County. CBP does a great job. 
Where the failure is is at the top of the ticket, and that is 
Mayorkas. Somebody needs to be held accountable, Mr. Chairman. 
That is why we impeached the man, and that is why he needs to 
be held on trial over in the Senate so that the American people 
will understand exactly what is happening in that Department. 
Because you have people that really want to do their job, but 
he is holding them back.
    Mr. Kirk, in your opinion, could you explain what is 
happening to the youth in Fort Peck Reservation, and what could 
be done to help protect those youth?
    Mr. Kirk. Thank you for the question. What can be done more 
right now, suicide is at a high rate. We have kids that don't 
have anything to turn to. What else do they turn to besides 
seeing generations before them turn to drugs?
    I like what you said. That Act contacts ICE to do their 
job. You said that perfectly. But when is somebody going to 
contact FBI, BIA, and IHS, and tell them to do their job also?
    Like you said, you are going to have them sit in front of 
you. And I guarantee you what we are saying to you and what 
they are going to say are two totally different things, because 
they truly don't know what is going on in the ground when it 
comes to Indian Country. Mental health services, things for our 
kids need to happen. And if we want to save this generation of 
youth, we need help with behavioral health services, mental 
health services, better education, better things to do in our 
communities. And we just need help.
    Mr. Collins. Amen, brother.
    Mr. Kirk. Thank you.
    Mr. Collins. Mr. Chairman, before I yield back, he is 
making our case for why we need to get rid of Alejandro 
Mayorkas. He is the head of that ticket, and that agency is not 
doing their job. With that, I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentleman from Georgia. The 
gentleman from Montana, Mr. Rosendale, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Rosendale. Thank you very much, Chairman Gosar, and 
thank you very much for holding this hearing.
    The impact of international cartels on my home state, 
particularly the tribes in my district, is immeasurable. We are 
witnessing a distressing surge in addiction and crime reaching 
unprecedented levels in the Treasure State.
    I want to acknowledge President Stiffarm and Mr. Kirk for 
making this long journey here to our nation's capital to share 
their insights and firsthand experiences regarding this 
alarming trend.
    The escalation of addiction, crime, and the loss of lives 
in recent years is intolerable, and I hope that this hearing 
will light a fire under our Federal agencies to take meaningful 
action against the cartels which continue to inflict harm in 
our state and in our reservations.
    Moreover, I hope this hearing will be a wake-up call to my 
colleagues across the aisle, helping them to recognize the 
unconscionable effects of President Biden's open border 
policies. These policies have clearly not only impacted border 
communities, but are felt across the entire nation.
    President Stiffarm, it is great to see you again, and thank 
you very much for attending.
    And Mr. Kirk, congratulations on 12 years of sobriety. I am 
very proud of you.
    President Stiffarm, could you provide your insights into 
the number of drug-related incidents your officers and Federal 
agencies encountered in Fort Belknap in 2023?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you for the question. And I don't have 
the exact numbers in front of me, but these officers, they 
encounter pretty much on a daily basis. And the remoteness of 
our Reservation and the access to get into the remote areas is 
pretty easy for these cartels to come through. There are back 
roads from the Rocky Boy Reservation to Fort Belknap, and that 
is one of the routes they take, and that is why I am so 
disappointed in the FBI and the Border Patrol for not assisting 
the tribes and trying to combat these drug issues that we have.
    And, more importantly, one of the issues that we really 
address is we don't have criminal jurisdiction over any of 
these people that bring in these drugs over non-members, even 
cartel members. We don't have criminal jurisdiction over them, 
so our hands are tied. If we do catch any of these people and 
we call for the Border Patrol or the FBI, officers have to sit 
there probably a few hours for them to get on the scene to even 
do anything.
    And the cartel knows this. That is why they come here. That 
is why they come to our home.
    Mr. Rosendale. So, if you don't have those numbers, do you 
have any kind of estimate on what type of increase that you 
have seen on this type of activity over the last couple, 3 
years?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Well, the increase is mostly in the fentanyl. 
And we had methamphetamine there for quite a while, and then 
they are bringing in fentanyl, which is a lot easier and a lot 
more expensive. Like Councilman Kirk said, down in the Southern 
border, it is pennies on a dollar, but you get up into Montana, 
it is $100 a pill sometimes, but they bring it in for the 
money. They bring it in because they can hide, they blend in 
easily. So, they bring in a lot of that fentanyl.
    We almost had an overdose on an employee right on a work 
site, so they are bringing it in to our staff. And if you are 
not a user, and they want you to be a user, they will spike 
your drink with it and get you hooked that way also.
    Mr. Rosendale. Recently, a Lodge Grass woman was sentenced 
to 24 years in prison for intent to distribute meth and 
conspiracy to commit money laundering involving activities in 
both the Crow Reservation and Fort Belknap, among other areas. 
What steps is the Tribe taking to prevent tribal members from 
being exploited by these dangerous cartels for the drug 
trafficking operations?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Well, we didn't really have any opportunity 
to take any steps because of the lack of funding. We are trying 
to just enforce it and prevent it.
    The only steps that we probably would have is, we have the 
CDC, which is always underfunded, and the social services 
program is always underfunded. It is basically the lack of 
funding that is preventing us from doing anything in our Indian 
Country.
    And our law enforcement is a 638 contract with the BIA. We 
took that over in 1997, and the base funding is $1.2 million. 
In 2023, our base funding is $1.3 million. It increased 
$100,000 in 20-plus years.
    Mr. Rosendale. I want to squeeze one more question in, 
President Stiffarm, before I lose my time. Do you believe the 
FBI is adequately prioritizing efforts to prevent and prosecute 
such illicit activities on our reservations and the surrounding 
areas?
    Mr. Stiffarm. No, they don't.
    Mr. Rosendale. OK. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I yield 
back. And, again, thank you so much for attending.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentleman from Montana. The 
gentlewoman from Wyoming is now recognized for her 5 minutes.
    Ms. Hageman. First of all, I want to acknowledge your 
bravery in coming here today. And Mr. Stiffarm, it is truly 
stunning to hear that our tribal members are being threatened 
by the cartels for testifying before Congress. That is 
something that needs to be addressed. And I think one of the 
things that should come out of this hearing is that we contact 
the FBI and find out exactly what they are doing to make sure 
that we can protect our tribal members from such unlawful 
conduct.
    Mr. Kirk and Mr. Stiffarm, Chairman Jose, thank you for 
being here. As the Representative of the state of Wyoming with 
the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes, listening to 
your testimony is sadly all too familiar. Our two tribes both 
reside on the Wind River Reservation. And much like your 
situations in Montana, our reservation covers 2.2 million acres 
that are very remote with a dispersed population. The 
Reservation relies on the BIA Wind River Agency for law 
enforcement, which has just 32 officers dedicated to the 
region.
    While the drug crisis is unfortunately not new to Wind 
River, dating back to at least the early 2000s, the situation 
has only worsened with the crisis at the Southern border and 
the presence of cartels and new drugs in our communities. I 
have now visited the border three times. I have been to the 
Yuma sector, I have been to Eagle Pass, Texas, and I have been 
in the area around Tucson. And to say that this is a crisis is 
actually an understatement of what we are seeing. It is a 
catastrophe that we are going to suffer and struggle through 
for decades to come, not only because of what we are dealing 
with right now, but what our children and our grandchildren are 
going to deal with with the cartels, the human trafficking, the 
drug smuggling that is coming into our country.
    I also have the honor of serving as the Chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs. And in this 
position, we have held hearings on the barriers tribal law 
enforcement face in promoting safe tribal communities and 
stories which are similar to the challenges we have heard here 
today. I appreciate your passion for protecting your 
communities.
    The facts are that the FBI, the BIA, and the IHS have 
failed your communities. They continue to fail your 
communities, and the crisis on the border is only making it 
worse. Something has to change, and someone needs to be held 
accountable for what they are doing to our tribal communities, 
what they are doing to our youth, what they are doing to our 
citizens, what they are doing to everyone in this country.
    Mr. Kirk, in your testimony you stated that, ``There is no 
doubt that the Mexican drug cartels are playing a major role in 
this crisis.'' You speak with such certainty because this is 
something that is well known in Indian Country. Would you 
please describe what you have personally witnessed in terms of 
cartel activity on your reservation?
    Mr. Kirk. So, the things that happen that get sent in the 
mail. I go back to that. No longer is it people transporting 
anything when it comes. A lot do get transported, a lot does 
come on the trains.
    When you say the effects, you just see the families, you 
see the brokenness, you see everything, the loss of happiness 
anymore. You see the lack of excitedness to actually go out and 
make a dollar, to actually go out and feed your family, to 
actually go out and do those things that we are accustomed to.
    One of the biggest things that you see is once somebody has 
100 pills, people have a habit of 25 pills a day. And you think 
about that. How do you get $2,500 a day to pick up that habit? 
They are a front man, and that is all they have is front people 
over and over and over again. And they utilize these guys and 
get deeper and deeper in debt. And if nothing happens, then 
they are held accountable.
    One thing is that they come in and harm these people. They 
come in and beat them because they have a debt with them. So, I 
invite you to come out to the reservation in Fort Peck, and you 
can see the boarded-up houses. You could see the things on 
reservations that you won't see here in Washington, DC.
    Ms. Hageman. I would like to do that.
    Mr. Kirk. And you can see the ravaging that is going on on 
our reservations because nobody should ever, ever have to do 
that. And with your guys' help, we can get the right resources 
to help our people.
    Ms. Hageman. We want to help you. And I think that one of 
the things that worries me the most about this and the crisis 
that has been created over the last 3 years with the human 
trafficking and the drug smuggling and the impact on our 
reservations is the trauma for our young people and the trauma 
that they are witnessing, watching their parents be consumed by 
the addiction, and the slavery associated with that addiction, 
and being beholden to the cartels because of those addictions.
    I am horrified by what you have described today, and I am 
absolutely furious with our Federal agencies for refusing to 
acknowledge and address the crisis on the border and what it is 
doing to the interior of our country, and most specifically, 
what it is doing to Indian Country. I am sorry for their 
failures. We are trying to hold them accountable. I will come 
to your reservation. I want to see what you are talking about 
because we have to fix it.
    Mr. Kirk. If I may respond, last week we had a meeting, a 
Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council meeting. The IHS Regional 
Director was there telling us they have $50 million in 
carryover funds that they are just holding. So, we are asking 
as tribes, ``Give them to us so we can start treatment centers, 
give them to us so we can start helping our people. What are 
they earmarked for? How many does each tribe have?''
    Do you know what the Regional Director said? ``I don't 
know.'' Fifty million dollars sitting there. They come and ask 
you guys for more money for us, you guys turn us down. Why? 
Because if you guys see somebody that can't spend $50 million, 
how can you guys bipartisanly come together and say that we 
need more money?
    Every time we go to the region, every time we go to these 
places, it falls on deaf ears, and we need help. We need you 
guys to hold these people accountable. That is what it is going 
to take, is for somebody to finally hold the government 
accountable to their trust and treaty obligations to us as 
tribes to finally get those funds that are sitting there, get 
them out to the tribes so we can actually help our 
reservations. Thank you.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentlewoman. That is one of my big 
things, is that I think it is high time that we get all the 
tribes together for a symposium with Congress, and talk about 
sovereignty, and talk about what the treaty obligations are, so 
that we come out with one voice. It seems like we are always 
divided. So, that would be my case in point.
    The gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Crane, is now recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Crane. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, everyone on 
the panel, for showing up today.
    I am proud to represent over half the tribes in Arizona. 
When I come and I listen to your stories, and I apologize for 
coming in late, I was at a Homeland Security hearing before 
this hearing, it just illuminates to me the reality that this 
wide-open border crisis that we have, it affects everybody, 
whether you live in Tucson, Flagstaff, whether you live on a 
reservation, it really doesn't matter.
    Ms. Vaughan, you mentioned in your testimony the Biden 
administration's irresponsible immigration policies have caused 
incalculable harm to those in Indian Country. Can you please 
elaborate on that a little bit?
    Ms. Vaughan. Well, some parts of the country are saddled 
with the burdens of sheltering and providing schooling and 
health care to the migrants who have been allowed to come in 
here. But the situation is different in Indian Country because 
of the way that the Mexican cartels in particular have targeted 
Indian Country to expand their drug distribution networks and 
profit from it to an extent that is much greater than in other 
parts of the country, where they are in competition with other 
drug distributors and so on.
    It is really horrifying to me to hear that the tribal 
leaders have received death threats for even talking about 
coming to speak to Congress about it.
    And it is for the reasons that have been discussed today 
because of some of the things unique to Indian Country with 
jurisdiction of law enforcement, the remoteness of it, the 
vulnerability of the population, and I think that is why these 
issues deserve special attention from Congress. And there is a 
lot that you can do about this. There is a lot the President 
could do, too. But that is why this is so important to have 
this hearing.
    Mr. Crane. Ms. Vaughan, if the President was here today, 
what would you tell him?
    Ms. Vaughan. I would ask him what possible motivation 
justifies the human tragedy that has been experienced in Indian 
Country and other parts of the country, the cost to taxpayers, 
the damage to the integrity of our legal immigration system and 
our sovereignty. What possibly could be worth all that cost and 
loss to our country?
    Mr. Crane. Thank you.
    President Stiffarm, have you noticed a difference in the 
last couple of years with what you have experienced in your 
community?
    Mr. Stiffarm. As far as the drug cartels?
    Mr. Crane. Yes.
    Mr. Stiffarm. Yes, I have. Billings is probably about a 
3\1/2\- or 3-hour drive south of us, and that is normally where 
we go do our shopping. And you see them there and you see them 
coming up into our area. I say it is, like, disguised as 
construction workers or laborers, and they come to the border 
towns of the reservation and set up shop, and then eventually 
they will find a mate on the reservation and move in.
    And it is pretty scary when we get threats when we are 
going to speak about them. But we have to think of not my 
future or anybody else's future, we have to think of our 
children's future, our babies, and the ones that have not been 
born yet, brought into this world. That is why we come and 
speak in front of you all is to try to protect their future, 
not ours. It is too late for ours because they are already 
here. But we are looking down the road and how we want to raise 
our babies in that type of atmosphere where they are allowed to 
come in unchecked.
    And then, most importantly, we don't have jurisdiction over 
them. In the first place, if we do catch them, what are we 
going to do, sit there and visit with them and shoot the 
breeze, take them to the border, our reservation border, where 
they are going to turn around and come right back on? Our hands 
are tied, seriously tied with the jurisdictional issues and 
lack of funding and training.
    Thank you for the question.
    Mr. Crane. What would you tell President Biden and 
Secretary Mayorkas if they were here today, sir?
    Mr. Stiffarm. I would tell them, to me it seems like they 
are more concerned about the immigrants coming across our 
border than concerned about what they are doing here once they 
get here, concerned about their own citizens of this country. 
And then, to me, more importantly, the first people of this 
country where they are coming into.
    Mr. Crane. Yes. What about you, Mr. Kirk? What would you 
tell our leadership if they were sitting here today?
    Mr. Kirk. Start looking inward instead of outward. Start 
worrying about the fight here for us trying to save our people, 
and stop looking to save others when all we are trying to do is 
save our people, too. Start looking for direct funding, and 
start fighting more on issues here in the United States than 
you are fighting for issues that have nothing to do with us. 
Thank you.
    Mr. Crane. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Dr. Gosar. I thank the gentleman from Arizona. The 
gentlewoman from New Mexico, our next-door neighbor, Ms. 
Stansbury, the Ranking Member, is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, thank 
you all for testifying today.
    President Stiffarm, I want to say thank you for bringing 
that stack of reports that is sitting next to you. One of the 
things that has been very frustrating for me during this 
hearing and during my time serving in Congress, I have been 
serving for the last 2\1/2\ years. I actually am a former 
staffer, and I actually worked at OMB when the Broken Promises 
report was being worked on by the Civil Rights Commission, and 
tribal leaders from across the country weighed in through 
consultation meetings.
    That report that is sitting right next to the President is 
one of the most extensive studies of what is happening around 
behavioral health, the fentanyl crisis, the crisis around 
policing in our tribes. And you know what that report reveals? 
This is not a new crisis.
    This is because of our history and the interactions between 
the U.S. Government and Tribal Nations, and the failure to 
recognize the sovereignty and the rights of our tribes. It is 
the failure of the Federal Government to appropriately fund 
agencies. It is the failure of the Federal Government to make 
sure those funds are actually transferred once they are 
appropriated. And it is the failure of our communities and 
helping to support our Tribal Nations so that they can address 
these issues on the ground in the manner in which each of these 
Nations feel is appropriate for their own people. This is not a 
new crisis. It is all right there in the report.
    And I have to tell you that part of why I ran for Congress 
as a former staffer is because I sat through hearings like this 
in the Senate, and I sat watching hearings during the former 
Administrations, and I watched as politician after politician 
has gotten up on daises like this and held hearings like this 
and said, oh, I am so sorry, we should address this crisis, but 
then actually wouldn't do anything because it is just political 
theater.
    And I think it is important that we recognize that actually 
what is happening in Congress this week, just to pull back the 
curtain a little bit, is that the GOP is trying to impeach 
Secretary Mayorkas.
    I want to note that not a single one of our witnesses today 
brought up Secretary Mayorkas. Right? They brought up the BIA, 
they brought up funding, and they said, hey, we need resources 
to address this crisis on the ground. It is generational. It 
has been going on regardless of administration.
    There is trauma in our communities. There are a lack of 
resources in our communities. There is a growing cartel problem 
in Mexico that is infiltrating our communities regardless of 
administration. We do need accountability of these agencies, 
but what we don't need is a bunch of political theater bringing 
people into our chambers to tell their stories just so you can 
go out there and talk to Fox News and make your point. These 
are people's real lives. We have studied these issues for 
years. We know what the solutions are.
    And I don't mean to seem so strident about it, but I find 
it disgusting. I find it frustrating. It is why I ran for 
office, because I am sick of politicians just coming in front 
of people and saying, oh, we will fix the problem, and then 
they go and do their political theater.
    So, you all came here to share your stories, and I want to 
use the rest of my time to ask each of the three tribal leaders 
who are here, please tell us what we can meaningfully do to 
help address the law enforcement and the behavioral health 
crises in your communities. And if we can start with Mr. Jose.
    Mr. Jose. Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member Stansbury, members 
of the Committee, what we can do is, you kind of hit on that. I 
think we need to put aside all the differences between 
political parties--race, color, creed, religion--and fix the 
human problem, fix the human problem on how we are going to 
address these issues. It isn't about color of skin. It isn't 
about religion. It is about the epidemic that has been 
generational.
    The Tohono O'odham Nation has always been hospitable 
people. We have always looked at welcoming people. We have been 
doing this since time immemorial, and we need to work together. 
We need to work together.
    The Federal Government creates laws, but they don't follow 
their own laws. They don't follow their own mandates, but yet 
hold other people accountable to follow them. We need to follow 
those laws. If that is the law of the country, then we should 
follow it. We should be responsible for those things. How can 
we fix it? Let's have true communication about addressing the 
issue at hand.
    On border issues? Those drugs, those things are coming 
through the Tohono O'odham Nation. They are not intended for 
the Tohono O'odham Nation. They are intended for the cities and 
towns of America and other reservations, as well.
    This migrant issue is bigger than the United States and 
bigger than Mexico. This is a world issue. So, we really want 
to talk about what can we do? Let's take a look at the issues 
and find out that American's hands are in other places that we 
can't even imagine. That is why we are facing these negative 
impacts here in what they call the United States of America. 
And the only way we are going to address those is a true 
collaboration about building bridges of hope, building bridges 
of opportunity, and not building walls. Thank you.
    Ms. Stansbury. Absolutely, thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, would you be open to allowing the other 
leaders to use time?
    Dr. Gosar. Go, yes.
    Ms. Stansbury. Mr. Kirk?
    Mr. Kirk. Most definitely. The biggest thing is working 
together. You know, we are all voted into a place to work 
together for the betterment of the United States of America, 
for us, the betterment of our tribe. That is what we do.
    What can you guys do? I will keep continuing to say it: 
direct funding, direct funding to tribes. That is what we need. 
Take the red tape out of everything and let us finally operate 
how we know how to operate when it comes to our reservation and 
our people. Money, I will keep saying it, gets sent overseas 
with no red tape, with no nothing. Here, spend it the way you 
want. Buy what you want to do. But yet here, as tribes, with 
our treaties and our trust obligations, we have to follow all 
the red tape in the world.
    The biggest thing is whatever you believe in, no matter 
what you do, you are all supposed to put that first. Whether it 
is Creator, whether it is God, you put God first, you put 
Creator first. You do it because it is for your people. And 
that is what it is about. You know, I am thankful for where I 
am at because if it wasn't for God putting me where I am at 
today, I wouldn't be here today.
    And I have an obligation to get along, to do my best for 
the people, and that is what you have to do is work together, 
set aside all the differences, because in the end, when we are 
all gone and we are dust, what is it going to matter? What is 
going to mean more today, listening to us and going out to 
these doors and making a difference and giving the tribes 
direct funding without this red tape to finally see tribes 
succeed?
    Stop putting us in bills with all these other people and 
all these other things, and trying to throw us as a pawn in 
these different kind of spaces. Just let us show you what we 
can do. Hold to those trust and treaty responsibilities. Hold 
to those that got signed. They are still there. Work together 
for the betterment of what you guys are trying to do.
    And, again, like the Chairman said, it is not about color. 
It is not about race. It is not about nothing. It is about 
working for the betterment of the people. And if you guys can 
do something, direct funding to tribes, give us our 
jurisdiction back, and let us show that we are not what people 
think we are. We are strong, we are resilient, and we will 
continue to be resilient moving forward. And we are going to 
win, no matter what people say about us. Thank you.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you.
    President?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you for your giving us the opportunity 
to speak on what we need and what our issues are.
    To me, we have all these Federal programs that are supposed 
to oversee and protect the communities, reservations, the 
people, which I am speaking about the FBI, the Border Patrol, 
and the BIA. But what I see and I experience personally and I 
saw with my own eyes is the lack of compassion of these people 
that serve us. They don't care. It is just a job to them such 
as, like, a construction worker building a house. They don't 
put any love behind their work. Neither does the FBI. Neither 
does even the BIA.
    That is what is so frustrating with me is with the BIA. 
They have tribal members running these programs, whether it is 
from other tribes or not, but they still don't care about the 
people that they serve. They don't. And we have a hard time 
getting, they call it technical assistance, when we need help 
from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
    We had an officer-involved shooting on Fort Belknap a 
couple of years ago, and we asked for technical assistance with 
the police officers because at that time we only had four 
officers to cover. You know what they sent us? One officer for 
3 days. What is wrong with that picture, that they are supposed 
to be serving you and helping you, and they send one officer 
for 3 days and then say that is all they can do.
    And then they come in and they review your program. In 
particular, what I know a lot about is the law enforcement. 
They review your program, you fail your review, and we fail 
year after year. And the reason why we fail is a lack of 
funding. And like I explained to you all, our base funding 
increased $100,000 in 20-plus years in law enforcement. They 
don't care.
    And I don't know how you can fix that problem. Like I said 
before, I asked the FBI agents that cover Fort Belknap and 
Rocky Boy, and I asked them, ``Do you know what tribes you are 
serving?'' They don't know that. They don't even know that. 
That is because they don't care.
    That is a hard issue for me and a hard pill to swallow, 
because I am watching our children grow up into this. I am 
watching our babies and what it is going to be when they get to 
our age, and what kind of life they are going to have. And that 
is what we need to really think about is our children, and then 
protecting our elders, our past, our stories. That is what our 
elders are.
    I thank you for your time. And I really hate talking about 
the BIA, the FBI, and the Border Patrol that way, but I guess 
the truth is the truth. And if I can't come in front of you and 
tell you how it is and how we are living, then I shouldn't be 
sitting in front of you all.
    And the people that threatened us because of what we are 
saying and how we are trying to protect our own people, so be 
it. I would rather sacrifice myself than sacrifice the rest of 
the people, and especially the unprotected back home. But I 
want to thank you for your time.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you.
    Thank you, Chairman.
    Dr. Gosar. You are certainly welcome.
    Ms. Vaughan, would you agree with this comment? Good 
process builds good policy builds good politics.
    Let me say it slowly. Good process builds good policy 
builds good politics.
    Ms. Vaughan. I think, yes, that could happen. But I think 
maybe what that statement means is that, if lawmakers do the 
right thing using the right process, then they will be 
successful politically because voters support that.
    Dr. Gosar. Well, I think it is obvious. We have been 
nibbling at this edge, and I am coming back to Mr. Kirk because 
he keeps saying it over and over again: ``Give us control.''
    I have lived with tribes my whole life, whether it be in 
Wyoming, where I went to school at Creighton, and I have 
represented Eli's district, as well, in Arizona, I have the 
CRIT. And I see this fundamental aspect from the tribes of not 
trusting the government. And why should you?
    But once again, that good process gets you that policy that 
you need. That is why I keep screaming this over and over 
again. We have to get the tribes all together and have this 
conversation about what is expected because what it does is it 
draws everybody into that process. So, I think we are nibbling 
at the edges. I think we just need to get to it, and I think 
the tribal members have actually said it very clearly: ``Give 
us that jurisdictional--give the money directly to us. Hold us 
accountable. We will show you what we can do.''
    And that is what we are debating about today, on this FISA 
reform. We have an out-of-control FBI. We have no personal 
space. It is all being taken up. It is wrong. That warrant is a 
reason. There is a reason there is a warrant. There is a reason 
why there is a warrant.
    And I go back to what China, they were having this fight 
in, what is the big city in China?
    Voice. Beijing?
    Dr. Gosar. No, no, Hong Kong. And this reporter looks at 
this young Hong Kong resident and says, ``Listen, wouldn't you 
want safety instead of freedom?''
    She said, ``No, I want freedom.''
    So, I also believe that you have to have the tools. 
President Stiffarm, what is the prevalence of Narcan on your 
reservation? Is it easily, readily available or not?
    Mr. Stiffarm. It is not easily or readily available within 
Fort Belknap, no.
    Dr. Gosar. And can you tell me the presence of crank on 
your reservation, as well?
    Mr. Stiffarm. You can go into your local convenience store 
and buy a pack of smokes. You can go on the street and buy 
methamphetamine or fentanyl just as easily.
    Dr. Gosar. Chairman Jose, I know a little bit about your 
reservation. Part of your reservation is in Mexico, and it is 
not even acknowledged by Mexico. What kind of a problem does 
that create for you?
    Mr. Jose. Chairman Gosar, members of the Committee, it 
creates a really difficult situation because, as I mentioned, 
our families are divided. I mean, I can't even publicly speak 
about what is going on in Mexico that our members face, so 
really addressing the issue at hand, like I mentioned before, 
it is not only a U.S.-Mexico thing, but we are caught in the 
middle of it. Our people are caught in the middle of it. And we 
have to deal with not only in Mexico but in the United States, 
as well.
    But here is the concern, Chairman, we should be allies, we 
should be working together, but it seems that the systems put 
us against each other when we should really be working together 
to address those issues. So, it is a really difficult situation 
in Mexico. Right now, we can't even go to some of the 
communities because of what is going on just south of the 
border in terms of that. So, it is a very terrible situation, 
Chairman.
    Dr. Gosar. It is.
    Mr. Kirk, I want you to address the targeting of the 
cartels of young Indian women, because I think this is 
atrocious in regards to the trafficking. And we have seen the 
loss of these women, the unidentified Indian women that have 
been lost. Can you address that for us, please?
    Mr. Kirk. When it comes to cartels, you mean?
    Dr. Gosar. Yes.
    Mr. Kirk. The biggest thing is that, like I shared with 
them getting trafficked to North Dakota, is they don't have 
anything and they see these drugs and these people and 
everything as, all right, I am going to make some money, or I 
am going to finally have something. They look for a sense of 
security in something that is wrong. And these guys bring a 
false security. They bring false money.
    But to the people that have nothing, and we haven't had 
anything for years, that little bit means something to 
somebody. When they see families and stuff that have nothing, 
and these kids grow up in nothing, and they see somebody as a 
cartel member, whoever it may be, that are bringing the drugs 
in, they see those people as a security, and that is why they 
hold on and latch on because of the money and the drugs that 
are there.
    Dr. Gosar. Ms. Vaughan, I will come back to you. You made a 
comment, and we had an exchange here a little bit, and I want 
to ask you. Under this current Administration, it seems like we 
have a hard time even taking care of our own people. You can't 
take care of the world until you take care of your own. Tell me 
why you see this illegal immigration aspect as being a big 
problem.
    Ms. Vaughan. Well, it is a big problem on so many levels. 
Immigration law is not some obsolete law that doesn't deserve 
to be enforced anymore. Very fundamentally, it takes away 
opportunities for Americans and legal immigrants to support 
themselves because the reason that most of these----
    Ms. Stansbury. I am so sorry, Mr. Chairman, you are over 
time, and this is outside the scope of this hearing. This 
hearing is about the fentanyl crisis in Indian Country.
    Dr. Gosar. Excuse me, I will strike that from the record 
because I gave you plenty of time. I am just starting my second 
time frame.
    Ms. Stansbury. But what----
    Dr. Gosar. You went through one and a whole other----
    Ms. Stansbury. But what is the relevance?
    Dr. Gosar. It is my time. It is my time.
    Ms. Vaughan. I can explain the relevance.
    Dr. Gosar. Yes, I can, too. Go ahead.
    Ms. Vaughan. The main reason most of the people who are 
crossing the border illegally are coming is because they 
believe that they will be released into the country and allowed 
to work here without facing any threat of enforcement for an 
indefinite period.
    One of the ways people have arrangements with the cartels 
is to pay just a downpayment on their smuggling fee, which runs 
into thousands of dollars. And then, after they are here, they 
enter what is essentially a debt bondage arrangement with the 
cartels to pay off their smuggling debt. So, people end up in, 
essentially, labor trafficking situations, sometimes working 
directly for the cartels either as drug mules or as employees 
in some of their operations. And this is one of the ways that 
the cartels enrich themselves through not only drug 
trafficking, but also human smuggling and debt bondage.
    And that is all enabled by the open border policies that 
have been put in place under the Biden administration, 
primarily by DHS Secretary Mayorkas. He has been the main 
architect of accomplishing this agenda for the Administration.
    And the costs are not just public safety, although that is 
one of the most important, but also the distortion of labor 
markets that denies opportunity to Americans and legal 
immigrants, and cuts off opportunities for them to support 
themselves. And it is just basically the trashing of our 
immigration system and the loss of public confidence in our 
legal immigration system.
    Dr. Gosar. Thank you. I just want to note that 4:04 or 4:06 
of the second minute, I am way behind the time of the Ranking 
Member. So, I just want to make sure that is noted in the 
books.
    Typically, I ask what was a question that you wanted asked 
but wasn't asked, and what is the answer?
    Mr. Kirk, we will start with you, the question that was 
never asked that you wanted asked, and what was its answer.
    Mr. Kirk. How can we better work together? And no 
disrespect to anybody or anything, we are here to talk about 
issues when it comes to Indian Country. We flew out, we paid 
money, we left our families. We put ourselves here in the 
forefront of this issue. And it seems like, again, as the lady 
said earlier, the gentleman, right now are we going to walk out 
these doors and be, like, all right, what was this for?
    How do we work together? That is the question that I didn't 
get from you guys is how are we going to work together. Because 
right now, sitting here, it is still divided. Sitting here, are 
we going to walk out these doors and get the same thing that we 
have gotten over and over again that my brother has over here, 
broken promises?
    Again, when I first started my testimony, is it something 
just to check a box off? Are we going to hold people 
accountable? And for me, my answer would be it is our 
obligation to each other to work together to have a 
relationship together with us.
    On reservations, we don't care about this stuff here 
because we are fighting a different battle. We are fighting a 
different monster on our reservation, Chairman, and that is the 
thing, is we are put in the middle of something right now that 
once something gets brought up, it is just like, wow, it is not 
even an issue that is going on in Indian Country. Because why? 
Because our borders have been open for years, upon years, upon 
years and had, like my brother said, people preying on our 
people for year after year, crisis after crisis. And it is 
something that we continue to fight.
    But then again, what gets held up on our end is everybody 
here working together across the aisle to give us the funding 
that we need to better resource our people. But, again, no 
disrespect to anybody, but it is working together. What can we 
do to work together? Thank you.
    Dr. Gosar. I will make you the commitment that we will stay 
in touch, and we will try to make something happen. As you saw 
me twice with Ms. Hageman, my colleague, I have wanted this 
conversation because I have said over and over again, I think 
the future of this country goes through Indian Country, because 
you have that sovereignty, you have that ability to dictate. 
And that is not what has happened.
    Mr. Kirk. No.
    Dr. Gosar. I think there are plenty of opportunities coming 
up here. I will make that commitment to you.
    Mr. Kirk. Thank you, sir.
    Dr. Gosar. Chairman Jose?
    Mr. Jose. Chairman, thank you for the question. Here is the 
question that wasn't asked that I would have hoped to be asked. 
Chairman Verlon Jose, what kind of Federal law would you create 
that every single person would follow?
    I wish that question was asked to me, and I would say I 
would create a Federal law that every single person will 
follow, and the law would be to do away with political parties, 
to do away with discrimination, to do away with all those 
indifferences, and let's address the issues at hand with a 
human response. Get in a room and let's talk about these 
things.
    I said this, Homeland Security, when Homeland Security was 
created, who created this? Who created Homeland Security? Well, 
the experts did. The experts never once consulted with our 
experts. That is the people that live there, that is the people 
that see that happening all the time. And after all these 
millions and billions of dollars spent, we could have told you 
that it wasn't going to work, but we were never included.
    So, if we could put aside all those differences, it is not 
about what I am going to get out of it or what my party is 
going to get out of it, or what my tribes can get out of it, it 
is about what is this nation going to get out of it. If we 
created a law and everybody would follow that, I think we would 
be in a better place to address it.
    Right now, everyone is for their own. There is too much 
division, there is too much separation. And that is why we are 
missing the solutions to address the issues that we have at 
hand. That would be a start. All those other things will fall 
into play, like direct funding and all those other things. But 
if we don't work together, that is why [speaking Native 
language], together, we are stronger. Isn't that what America 
was built on? Isn't that what America talks about? So, let's 
live up to that.
    Thank you, Chairman.
    Dr. Gosar. Ms. Vaughan?
    Ms. Vaughan. The question I would like to be asked is who 
should be served most by our immigration policies?
    And quite simply, the answer is Americans. Our immigration 
policies should serve our national interest and Americans 
first.
    Dr. Gosar. And President Stiffarm?
    Mr. Stiffarm. Thank you. I guess I would like to have been 
asked, what could you all do to curb our problems that we have 
on reservations. The biggest one is quit tying our hands.
    It seems like to me, when we need something or want 
something, we have to come here to beg. We have to beg for what 
we have and what we need. But you look at Ukraine and the war 
that is going on over there, they ask and they shall receive. 
They receive billions of dollars for a war to kill people. And 
I have said this before. And when the tribes ask for maybe 
thousands of dollars or maybe a few million to save our people, 
we are usually told no. And then we can't even enforce our laws 
over non-members in our own country and our own land, like you 
said, our own sovereignty.
    So, basically, our hands are tied no matter where we go, no 
matter what we do. Untie our hands. Let us help our own people. 
We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for a hand up.
    Dr. Gosar. Thank you very much. I want to thank the 
witnesses for their valuable testimony today and the Members 
for their questions.
    The members of the Committee may have some additional 
questions for you, and we will ask you to respond to those in 
writing. Under Committee Rule 3, members of the Committee must 
submit their questions to the Subcommittee Clerk by 5 p.m. on 
April 15. The hearing record will be held open for 10 business 
days for these responses.
    If there is no further business in this Subcommittee, we 
are adjourned.

    [Whereupon, at 12:07 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

            [ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD]

Submissions for the Record by Rep. Gosar

                        Statement for the Record
                    Zack Smith, Senior Legal Fellow
         Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program
         Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
                        The Heritage Foundation

Introduction

    My name is Zack Smith, and I appreciate the opportunity to provide 
written testimony to the subcommittee.\1\ The views I express in this 
testimony are my own and should not be construed as representing any 
official position of The Heritage Foundation.
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    \1\ The Heritage Foundation is a public policy, research, and 
educational organization recognized as exempt under section 501(c)(3) 
of the Internal Revenue Code. It is privately supported and receives no 
funds from any government at any level, nor does it perform any 
government or other contract work.

    Members of The Heritage Foundation staff testify as individuals 
discussing their own independent research. The views expressed here are 
my own and do not reflect an institutional position for The Heritage 
Foundation or its board of trustees.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I currently serve as a Senior Legal Fellow in The Heritage 
Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. 
Before joining Heritage, I served as an Assistant United States 
Attorney in the Northern District of Florida, worked at a large law 
firm here in Washington, DC, and clerked for the Honorable Emmett R. 
Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. 

Introduction

    The Biden Border Crisis has been an unmitigated disaster. If 
someone tried to design an ideal scenario to allow human trafficking, 
drug trafficking, and other criminal activities to flourish, they would 
have a hard time improving on the current situation at our Southern 
Border. Rather than enforcing the law, the Biden Administration has 
instead abdicated its duty to do so with sad and foreseeable 
consequences following.
    As the title of the subcommittee's hearing makes clear, the 
consequences of this border crisis aren't confined only to the border 
but have spread throughout the country from the biggest urban cities to 
even the most rural Indian reservations. And in fact, it is often these 
latter locations that suffer the most from the Biden Border Crisis 
because of the lack of qualified law enforcement personnel to serve 
these communities and the jurisdictional morass that entangles those 
who do serve and who seek to arrest and prosecute offenders.\2\

    \2\ Zack Smith, After the Supreme Court's Oklahoma Decision, the 
Rights of Accused on Tribal Land Are Up in the Air. Congress Should 
Make Things Clearer, Not Less So, The Daily Signal (Aug. 5, 2020), 
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/08/05/after-the-supreme-courts-
oklahoma-decision-the-rights-of-accused-on-tribal-land-are-up-in-the-
air-congress-should-make-things-clearer-not-less-so/.
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    Ever the savvy operators, organized crime--particularly many of the 
Mexican cartels--have sought to capitalize on this sad situation. 
Undoubtedly, the uncertainty surrounding who can be arrested by whom 
for what crimes that will then be prosecuted by which authorities, who 
may or may not have the power to do so, proves to be part of the 
attraction for the cartels.
    While drug use and organized crime have long been problems on 
reservations, these problems today have been exacerbated by the 
introduction of new, powerful, and even more deadly drugs such as 
fentanyl and by efforts to reform and revise tribal jurisdiction over 
certain issues, individuals, and cases in the wake of several recent 
U.S. Supreme Court rulings. 

The Scourge of Fentanyl

    As my Heritage colleague, Paul Larkin, has made clear, ``the mass 
production of illicitly produced and distributed fentanyl'' is 
``killing thousands of Americans today.'' \3\ It's 50-100 times more 
powerful than morphine, and as Larkin notes, ``[f]or perspective, 
heroin is [only] five times as powerful as morphine.'' \4\ It's also 
easier and cheaper to produce and ship because it's a synthetic opioid 
rather than a plant-based one like cocaine. Receiving the necessary 
precursor chemicals from China, ``[t]wo of the nine Mexican drug 
cartels--the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel 
(CJNG)--are principally responsible for manufacturing the finished 
product'' and smuggling it into the United States.\5\ From there, it 
spreads death and destruction wherever it goes.

    \3\ Paul J. Larkin, Twenty-First century Illicit Drugs and Their 
Discontents: The Scourge of Illicit Fentanyl, Leg. Mem. No. 313, The 
Heritage Foundation (Nov. 1, 2022), https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-
justice/report/twenty-first-century-illicit-drugs-and-their-
discontents-the-scourge.

    \4\ Id.

    \5\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As one Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney recently noted in her 
testimony before a Senate committee, ``Fentanyl overdoses are the 
leading cause of opioid-related deaths throughout the United States, 
including Indian Country.'' \6\ She added that the Justice Department 
``recognizes that the widespread availability and abuse of drugs in 
Indian Country, coupled with drug trafficking groups operating in 
Indian Country, contribute to the high rates of crimes on reservations, 
including violent crime.'' \7\ To help combat these problems, President 
Biden issued an executive order stating that the ``safety and well-
being of all Native Americans is a top priority for my 
Administration,'' \8\ where he noted that criminal ``jurisdiction 
complexities and resource constraints have left many injustices 
unaddressed.'' \9\

    \6\ Oversight Hearing, ``Fentanyl in Native Communities: Federal 
Perspectives on Addressing the Growing Crisis'' Before the S. Comm. On 
Indian Affairs, 118th Cong. (Dec. 6, 2023) (testimony of Vanessa R. 
Waldref, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of 
Washington), https://www.indian.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023-12-
06-HRG-Testimony-Waldref.pdf; see also 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1151 (defining 
Indian country).

    \7\ Id.

    \8\ Exec. Order No. 14,053, Executive Order on Improving Public 
Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the 
Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (Nov. 15, 2021), 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/11/
15/executive-order-on-improving-public-safety-and-criminal-justice-for-
native-americans-and-addressing-the-crisis-of-missing-or-murdered-
Indigenous-people/.

    \9\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    But put in the larger context of his other policies, Biden's 
statements ring hollow. The recruitment and retention issues plaguing 
police departments around the country are also plaguing police 
departments charged with patrolling and enforcing the laws in Indian 
Country. And it's no wonder. In addition to being responsible for 
covering vast swaths of territory, these offices would also likely be 
subjected to the onerous requirements of President Biden's problematic 
executive order on policing, along with facing the long-hours and low 
pay other officers face too.\10\

    \10\ Zack Smith, Biden's Executive Order on Policing Misses Mark, 
The Daily Signal (May 27, 2022), https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/05/
27/bidens-executive-order-on-policing-misses-mark/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jurisdictional Morass in Indian Country

    On top of that, imagine being on patrol, pulling over a car or 
truck late at night on a deserted reservation highway, and seeing 
illegal contraband--like drugs and guns--in plain view. Can the tribal 
police officer search and detain the suspect if he's not a tribal 
member? He can, but that wasn't clear until the Supreme Court 
definitively answered the question in a 2021 decision.\11\ 
Jurisdictional questions like this--with real world practical 
consequences--often plague those who patrol Indian Country.

    \11\ United States v. Cooley, 593 U.S. ____ (2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has perplexingly declared half of 
Oklahoma to be Indian Country--with the logic of this decision 
potentially extending to other territories too--the morass is more 
confusing than ever before.\12\ Take, for instance, the situation in 
Tulsa, Oklahoma. On July 8, 2020, the citizens of Tulsa went to bed 
with their entire city firmly within the state of Oklahoma and subject 
to its laws. The following day, the Supreme Court issued its decision 
in McGirt v. Oklahoma, and many citizens of Tulsa went to bed with 
their homes now on reservation land--subject to some mixture of state, 
federal, and tribal law depending on who they are and where they are 
located.\13\ While the Supreme Court has slightly softened the impacts 
of this problematic precedent,\14\ local police still struggle to 
enforce even basic laws based on the jurisdictional mess that's been 
created and left unresolved.\15\

    \12\ Zack Smith, Supreme Court Decides Half of Oklahoma Has Been an 
Indian Reservation for Past 113 Years, The Daily Signal (Jul. 10, 
2020), https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/07/10/supreme-court-decides-
half-of-oklahoma-has-been-an-indian-reservation-the-past-113-years/.

    \13\ McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. ____ (2020).

    \14\ Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, 597 U.S. ____ (2022).

    \15\ See City of Tulsa v. Hooper, 600 U.S. ____ (2023) (statement 
of Kavanaugh, J., joined by Alito, J., respecting the denial of the 
application for stay).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    If local and tribal police struggle to enforce basic public safety 
laws because of the jumbled jurisdictional provisions, it doesn't take 
much imagination to see how these provisions give cover to the cartels 
and hamper legitimate law enforcement investigations into cartel-driven 
organized crime efforts like human and drug trafficking operations.\16\ 
The urgency of the matter is hammered home when one considers that 
Tulsa's police chief has made clear that the ``fentanyl crisis is huge 
for us. We can do interdictions and remove kilos of this stuff [where 
even 2 milligrams can prove to be a fatal dose \17\], but it doesn't 
stop. It just continues to plague the community.'' \18\

    \16\ Kirk Siegler, Human Trafficking Crisis in Indian Country `Like 
a Pandemic,' NPR (Mar. 12, 2021) (noting that according to a South 
Dakota state representative ``too many crimes are going unsolved and 
perpetrators are taking advantage of the gaps between multiple 
jurisdictions'' and that sometimes ``the dots aren't connected that 
this is a human trafficking issue''), https://www.npr.org/2021/03/12/
976053675/human-trafficking-crisis-in-indian-country-like-a-pandemic.; 
see also Dan Harris, Brian Epstein, John Carlos Frey, Evan Simon, and 
Pete Madden, On Tribal Land Along US-Mexico Border, Drug and Human 
Smuggling Corrupts an Ancient Culture, ABC News (May 16, 2019), https:/
/abcnews.go.com/US/tribal-land-us-mexico-border-drug-human-smuggling/
story?id=63064992.

    \17\ See Larkin, supra note 3.

    \18\ Tim Landes, In Conversation with Wendell Franklin: Tulsa 
Police Chief on the Challenges He and His Officers are Facing, Tulsa 
People (updated Mar. 29, 2024), https://www.tulsapeople.com/city-desk/
in-conversation-with-wendell-franklin-tulsa-police-chief-on-the-
challenges-he-and-his-officers/article_0c164aee-eb8c-11ee-aba5-
d7fe200012dc.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seized Fentanyl Accounts for Only a Small Portion Being Smuggled Into 
    Our Country

    Of course it plagues Tulsa's community--and many others too. 
Consider that ABC News reported ``[t]rafficking of fentanyl appears 
largely to occur at the southwest border, where 90% of the drug seized 
by [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] is found. Over the past year 
[2023], the agency seized more than 850% fentanyl compared to 2019 and 
seized nearly as much fentanyl in fiscal year 2023 compared to the 
previous year,'' according to DHS data.\19\ Consider too that this only 
accounts for fentanyl found and seized by CBP. At the end of December 
2023, the Biden Administration encountered more than 12,000 people 
crossing the border each day.\20\ To put this context, Obama-
Administration DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson previously said that 1,000 
border crossings in a single day made for a ``bad day'' that 
``overwhelms the system'' and described 4,000 crossings in a single day 
as a ``crisis.'' \21\ During Fiscal Year 2023, which ended on Sept. 
30th of that year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro 
Mayorkas admitted that over ``600,000 people illegally made their way 
into the States without being apprehended by border agents.'' \22\ It's 
no wonder that fentanyl and other harmful drugs continue to flow into 
our nation's cities, towns, and tribal lands virtually unabated.

    \19\ Quinn Owen, Border Officials Seizing A lot of Fentanyl, but 
Say It's a Complicated Problem to Solve, ABC News (Dec. 1, 2023), 
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/border-officials-seizing-lot-fentanyl-
complicated-problem-solve/story?id=105255151.

    \20\ @BillMelugin_, X (Dec. 6, 2023, 2:01 PM), https://twitter.com/
BillMelugin_/status/1732475304411886028.

    \21\ Id.

    \22\ Alex Oliveira, Alejandro Mayorkas Admits 600,000 Illegal 
`Gotaways' Crossed Border in 2023, Calls Immigration System `Broken,' 
NY Post (Oct. 31, 2023), https://nypost.com/2023/10/31/news/alejandro-
mayorkas-admits-600000-illegal-gotaways-in-2023/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion

    The sad reality is that this crisis was avoidable. If the Biden 
Administration had done its duty, secured our borders, and held 
offenders accountable for their actions, reservations and other 
localities wouldn't be experiencing the fentanyl crisis they currently 
face, and cartels would not feel emboldened to prey on these 
communities. Until the administration begins enforcing the law, the 
crisis will continue.
                                 ______
                                 
                        Statement for the Record 
                        
                              Harlan Baker
     The Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation

    Two weeks ago, two members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe were shot and 
killed on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in North Central Montana by 
associates of international drug cartels. The senseless loss of these 
lives is a tragedy as well as a travesty of justice, but it was also 
not entirely unexpected. The forces of evil have been at work for 
several years, with drug cartels strategically praying on vulnerable 
tribal members and targeting Indian Country in remote areas, such as 
the Rocky Boy Reservation, where law enforcement is scarce. Drug 
cartels use tribal members and homes to flood Montana with fentanyl and 
methamphetamine, leaving death, addiction, and broken hearts and lives 
in their wake. The Tribe is desperately trying to deal with this 
complicated law enforcement issue with limited resources and limited 
help.

    This is a reservation border security issue of utmost importance. 
The crisis is worsened by several factors, including unmet Rocky Boy 
law enforcement needs, inadequate tribal police training for drug and 
cartel investigations, inadequate funding and training of tribal 
prosecutors' offices, insufficient monitoring of drug cartel 
activities, insufficient resources to protect Indian Country and tribal 
peoples, decreased BIA law enforcement funding, and outdated tribal 
criminal codes to appropriately address drug cartel activity.

    Montana's Indian Reservations are facing this epidemic unassisted. 
Our requests for help from the federal government have been ignored. 
Drug cartels have the advantage of unlimited resources from their evil 
drug trade, but we can't walk away from the problem. We must consider 
all available solutions, including cooperative tribal criminal 
jurisdiction agreements, reservation-wide checkpoints to search for 
drug dealers and gang/cartel members, and other community-based and 
local/state/federal strategies to thwart the continued infiltration by 
drug cartels onto reservations.

    We are also at a crossroads where civil rights could be 
compromised. Many of the available solutions could come at the expense 
of individual civil rights, such as searches of known drug dealers, 
routine checks on homes with suspected drug activity, reservation bans, 
disenrollment of convicted drug dealers, reservation-wide sweeps of 
suspected drug dealers, police stops for out-of-state license plates. 
This risk requires a thoughtful and sensitive approach, or we will 
create additional challenges. The recent murders on the Rocky Boy 
Reservation are a symptom of a much larger disease. The time to act is 
now to collectively and decisively rid Indian Country of the evil 
scourge and tremendous suffering caused by international drug cartels.
                                 ______
                                
Submission for the Record by Rep. Stansbury

                        Statement for the Record 
                        
                      Southern Poverty Law Center

Introduction

    On behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center, we write to provide 
our insights on issues discussed during the U.S. House Committee on 
Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations April 
10, 2024, hearing entitled ``Biden's Border Crisis: Examining the 
Impacts of International Cartels Targeting Indian Country.'' We 
appreciate the opportunity to share our expertise on the issue and one 
of the witnesses called to testify. We would ask that this statement be 
included as part of the Subcommittee's formal hearing record.
    Established in 1971, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a 
nonprofit organization founded in Montgomery, Alabama, to help ensure 
the promise of the Civil Rights Movement became a reality for all, 
particularly for Black communities in the South, who are all too often 
the victims of discriminatory policies and who experience targeted 
violence at the hands of white supremacists. We work in partnership 
with communities of color to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen 
intersectional movements through transformative policies and 
initiatives, and advance the human rights of all people.

Background

    SPLC works to track, monitor, and expose organized hate and 
extremism in the U.S. As part of this mission, SPLC tracks anti-
immigrant hate groups and documented 17 of these groups in 2022. One 
witness invited to testify at the hearing on April 10 was Jessica 
Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration 
Studies, (CIS). SPLC designates CIS as an anti-immigrant hate group.
    Based in Washington, D.C., CIS serves as one of the leading anti-
immigrant think tanks in the country. The group is known for producing 
reports warning of the dangers of mass immigration and making claims of 
high levels of criminality of immigrants that have been debunked 
elsewhere. The group has repeatedly circulated white nationalist and 
antisemitic writers in its weekly newsletter and commissioned a policy 
analyst who had previously been pushed out of the conservative Heritage 
Foundation for embracing racist pseudoscience.
    CIS was founded in 1985 by the late John Tanton, a white 
nationalist and eugenicist who is credited as the architect of the 
modern-day anti-immigrant movement. Tanton sought to limit immigration 
to preserve a white majority in the U.S., as revealed by a cache of his 
personal memos. He founded a network of organizations to carry out his 
vision by pushing anti-immigrant policies and derailing meaningful 
immigration reform. He established CIS as an independent think tank to 
help give legitimacy to his network's agenda.
    Vaughan is a longtime staffer with CIS and has contributed to the 
group's misinformation and obfuscation of the immigration debate. For 
example, Vaughan often decries the humanitarian Temporary Protected 
Status program, which provides relief for thousands of individuals who 
have fled war-torn nations and countries dealing with natural 
disasters, and falsely blamed it for an increase in crime in the U.S. 
She has previously discussed her work with The American Free Press, an 
antisemitic newspaper founded by noted Holocaust denier Willis Carto.
    Vaughan used her remarks on April 10 to suggest that, under the 
Biden administration, the U.S. border has been turned into ``a chaotic, 
dangerous and seemingly lawless frontier.'' She lamented the relaxing 
of draconian immigration enforcement policies implemented during the 
Trump administration, like enforcement of Title 42, which was put in 
place during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Migrant 
Protection Protocols, or the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, which has 
sent over 70,000 people seeking asylum to face dangerous conditions and 
potential abuses in Mexico while they wait for their immigration court 
hearings. She advocated expanding problematic 287(g) programs, which 
entangle local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement and 
have been riddled with abuse, discrimination, racial profiling, and 
violations of many people's constitutional rights.
    One of the other harms Vaughan said to be affecting American 
communities, including ``Indian Country,'' is Biden administration 
efforts seeking to halt construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. 
Some Tribal nations and leaders, however, have joined the Borderlands 
Advocates coalition , along with environmental groups like the Sierra 
Club, in opposing a wall, calling it an ``affront to human and civil 
rights and to our vibrant border communities and borderlands.'' Some 
anti-immigrant groups seek to blame environmental issues on immigrants 
and migration. But as noted by Borderlands Advocates, ``[t]hese 
barriers block wildlife migration, cause flooding and damage pristine 
wild lands, including wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and national 
forests.'' The coalition instead advocates for comprehensive 
immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship as a real way of 
addressing the complex issues at the border.
    During the hearing on April 10, Rep. Delia Ramirez asked Vaughan if 
she believes in the racist ``great replacement'' theory, a conspiracy 
narrative which claims there is an active, ongoing, and covert effort 
to displace and replace white people in western nations with people of 
color and non-white immigrants. Mass murderers who have carried out 
violence in places like El Paso, Texas, Christchurch, New Zealand, 
Buffalo, New York, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have cited this 
conspiracy theory as inspiration for their attacks. Vaughan responded 
that she was unaware of the concept. Yet, groups that operate in the 
same network as CIS have long pushed anti-immigration ideas akin to the 
great replacement.
    Rep. Ramirez also pressed Vaughan about her repeated peddling ideas 
of there being a migrant ``invasion'' happening at the U.S.-Mexico 
border. This rhetoric aligns with great replacement ideas by framing 
migrants and asylum seekers, most of whom are from Central and South 
America, as being some kind of violent enemy which must be met with 
militaristic force. Vaughan responded, ``I don't use that term, it's 
not appropriate.'' But as reported by the immigration advocacy group 
America's Voice, Vaughan is documented using the term ``invasion'' on 
social media. For example, in 2018, she re-shared an article claiming, 
``Trump has full constitutional power to stop the border invasion.'' 
Invasion rhetoric also appears in articles published on CIS's website.
    America's Voice has documented other members of the House Committee 
on Natural Resources amplifying similar ``invasion'' rhetoric.
    This is not the first time Vaughan or a CIS staffer has been 
invited to testify before a Congressional committee. It remains 
important to highlight CIS's harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and agenda 
when they are given a prominent, prestigious platform. And while it is 
fundamental within democratic principles to debate immigration policy, 
dehumanizing rhetoric should play no part in that debate.
    We appreciate the opportunity to submit this statement as part of 
the Subcommittee's formal hearing record. For more information about 
SPLC's work to ensure that our country safeguards our nation's long-
standing promise of opportunity and safety to arriving immigrants and 
that immigrants are treated fairly, equally, and with dignity, please 
contact Michael Lieberman, Senior Policy Counsel, 
Michael.Lieberman@splcenter.org.

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