MORRISEY

CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration, alleging it’s refusing to stop deadly fentanyl from flowing across the nation’s southern border.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, Morrisey’s lawsuit asks the court to force the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to reconsider its termination of a Trump-era policy, known as Remain in Mexico. The complaint alleges the secretary recently canceled the policy without due consideration for the impact on efforts to stop the smuggling of illegal drugs such as fentanyl.

“Ending the Remain in Mexico policy will undoubtedly lead to an increase in illegal drug trafficking and thus senseless deaths from fentanyl,” Morrisey said. “I’ve long believed that a lawsuit should not be necessary to force the government to secure our southern border.

“We spoke out two months ago, yet the administration has failed to respond to our concerns,” he added. “The border is more porous than ever. In the face of such silence and inaction, and because so many lives are at stake, litigation is the only remedy left to West Virginia.”

The lawsuit explains fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine. A lethal dose can be as small as two milligrams. That means one kilogram of fentanyl (equivalent to 2.2 pounds) contains up to 500,000 potentially lethal doses.

Morrisey alleges that ending the Remain in Mexico policy has exacerbated the fentanyl problem by dramatically increasing the drug’s supply by reassigning border security personnel and other resources the policy had freed up to stop smuggling and unlawful crossings.

The lawsuit asks the court to find that cancellation of the Remain in Mexico program was rash and ill-considered.