West Virginia’s Republican Governor, Patrick Morrisey, has ordered the state’s law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as federal officials scooped up around 72 illegal aliens this week.
Morrisey said that 13 of the 72 migrants arrested by ICE had already been convicted of crimes in West Virginia, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The governor added that 36 of the detainees had been arrested for violating immigration laws. He added that they were not arrested merely for “walking across the border.” Instead, they were hit with charges including failing to respond to deportation orders, violating court orders, skipping court hearings, and re-entering the U.S. after being deported before.
Ten of the detainees had been transferred to correctional facilities in Kentucky.
Morrisey noted that these criminals are at the heart of the fentanyl crisis in his state.
“Illegal immigration issues go hand in hand with the drug epidemic in West Virginia,” the governor said. “We see it in West Virginia through the fentanyl that comes in. The linkage between illegal immigration and death in our state is very real. In West Virginia, we know that there have been over 1,300 overdose deaths — 80% of them from fentanyl.”
According to the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, fentanyl was involved in 76% of all drug overdose deaths in West Virginia in 2021, up from 58% in 2017.
West Virginia also has some of the highest per capita death rates in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Morrisey also praised President Trump.
“I’m so thankful we have President Trump in the White House,” Morrisey insisted. “He has taken on this illegal immigration problem … and we’re going to partner with the president to go after this deadly issue.”
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