While drugs, terrorists and unaccompanied children are pouring across the southern border, the Biden-Harris administration is cracking down on smugglers bringing refrigerants into the United States, according to Bloomberg News.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other relevant agencies are cracking down on illegal shipments of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – chemicals commonly used as refrigerants – showing up at the southern border, Bloomberg News reported. Reported The Biden-Harris administration's crackdown on illegal refrigerant smuggling on Tuesday came after years of chaos at the border, where millions of people, hundreds of people on terrorism watch and thousands of pounds of drugs have passed through.
HFCs are a type of greenhouse gas that are considered to have a high “global warming potential” and are used in fire extinguishers, aerosols, building insulation, etc. According to The American Innovative Manufacturing (AIM) Act, enacted in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, mandates an 85% reduction in HFC production and use by 2036, according to the EPA, according to Bloomberg News. (RELATED: “Border Secretary” Kamala Harris previously blamed the migration surge on “lack of climate adaptation.”)
The Biden administration is spending billions to make ports of entry greener while trying to cut the border wall budget. https://t.co/5xh90ixidg
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 15, 2024
According to Bloomberg News, law enforcement agencies are using artificial intelligence and other tools to flag suspicious shipments coming into the U.S. and are “reexamining how they can work together” to stop illegal HFC shipments. Federal authorities have charged a San Diego man with smuggling HFCs into the U.S. from Mexico, and the EPA has reached nine settlements related to HFC imports so far in fiscal year 2024.
According to Bloomberg News, so far in fiscal 2024, the government has been able to stop about 25 shipments, totaling about 211,000 tonnes, roughly the amount emitted by 50,000 cars in a year. HFCs are commonly used in aerosols and fire extinguishers, but they are also used in restaurants, supermarkets, buildings and cars.
“We're using our enforcement authority in a very different way to combat climate change,” EPA enforcement chief David Ullman told Bloomberg News. But Ullman acknowledged that federal officials can't completely eradicate illegal shipments of HFCs coming into the country, just as they couldn't with fentanyl and other illicit products coming into the U.S. at the southern border.
“There are illegal shipments of HFCs that evade detection at the border,” Ullman told Bloomberg News. “It's impossible to stop all illegal imports of HFCs for the same reasons that it's impossible to stop all illegal attempts to bring fentanyl into the country or illegal attempts to smuggle guns and other contraband into the country.”
Since fiscal year 2021, there have been at least 8 million encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border. According to More than 500,000 of those encounters were unaccompanied minors, according to CBP data, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General found in a recent report that the Biden-Harris administration has effectively lost track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors entering the interior of the country.
The agency also: Recorded So far in fiscal year 2021, there have been more than 600 encounters with individuals listed in the terrorist screening dataset along the southern border.
In addition, CBP Reports Nearly 70,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the southern border since fiscal year 2021, suggesting an overall increase in fentanyl trafficking and potentially large amounts of the deadly drug entering the United States.
The EPA, CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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