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October 21, 2022
Dear John,
A Nation That's Safe
“The key to getting a handle on drug crime is securing our southern border. The drugs might be coming across the southern border, but they’re coming to a community near you,” Pennington County Sheriff-Elect Brian Mueller said. These drugs are connected to violent crime at very high rates—and almost all of it is coming from the border.
We could hope that being over 1,000 miles away from where these drugs are coming from would keep us safer—our small towns are typically safe havens. A place where families can be carefree and not always worrying their kid will be in danger or get into serious trouble themselves.
But over the past couple years we have seen increases in crime rates across the country, specifically violent crime, and almost all of it is connected to drugs like meth and fentanyl that is crossing our southern border. Even though there is 1,000 miles to cover between the border and South Dakota, Sheriff-Elect Mueller said almost all drug dealers arrested in Rapid City have connections to the Mexican cartel. The “Defund the Police” movement and the Biden Administration’s open border policy are enabling increased crime and drug smuggling. This is unacceptable—the Biden Administration and Congress must work towards improving public safety.
Law enforcement in small, rural, and tribal communities are sounding the alarm of the risks of low staff, slow emergency response times, lack of resources, and higher crime rates. To support these communities, I voted in favor of the Invest to Protect Act that recently passed the House and I introduced the Tribal Capital for Operations Promoting Safety (COPS) Act. Both bills will provide resources to law enforcement agencies to make our communities safer.
And it's not just causing an increase in violent crime, but we are seeing an increase of drug overdose deaths, especially in teens. In 2021, fentanyl overdoses killed over 71,000 people—that is more than 175 per day. In addition to joining House Republicans’ efforts to secure the border, I cosponsored the Protecting Kids from Fentanyl Act to help prevent fentanyl overdoses by allowing schools to use unused COVID relief dollars to purchase overdose prevention drugs and provide life-saving training to faculty, staff, and students.
We all hope our communities remain safe havens for our families. To do so, we need to secure our southern border and invest in local law enforcement agencies. House Republicans and I are committed to protecting the public safety of our nation for generations to come.
 Rep. Dusty Johnson speaking with Pennington County Sheriff-Elect Brian Mueller
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