While narcotics, terrorists and unaccompanied children stream across the southern border, the Biden-Harris administration is cracking down on smugglers bringing refrigerants into the U.S., according to Bloomberg News.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Patrol (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 Tuesday. The Biden-Harris administration’s clampdown on illegal refrigerant smuggling follows several years of disorder at the border, which has been crossed by millions of people, hundreds of terror-watchlisted individuals and thousands of pounds of narcotics.
HFCs are a type of greenhouse gas thought to have a high “global warming potential,” and they are used in fire extinguishers, aerosols, insulation for buildings and other purposes, according to the EPA. The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, enacted in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, requires an 85% reduction of HFC production and use by 2036, according to Bloomberg News.
Biden Admin Spending Big To Make Ports Of Entry Green While Trying To Yank Border Wall Funds https://t.co/5xh90ixidg
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Law enforcement agents are using tools like artificial intelligence to flag suspicious cargo entering the U.S., and they are “rethinking ways of teaming up” to stop illegal HFC shipments, according to Bloomberg News. Federal authorities charged one man in San Diego for allegedly smuggling HFCs into the U.S. from Mexico, and the EPA has reached nine settlements involving HFC imports so far in fiscal year 2024.
So far in fiscal year 2024, they have been able to halt about 25 such shipments accounting for about 211,000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is about how much 50,000 cars emit in one year, according to Bloomberg News. Typical uses for HFCs include aerosols and fire extinguishers, and restaurants, supermarkets, buildings and cars also use them.
“We’re deploying our enforcement authorities in ways we never have before to combat climate change,” EPA enforcement chief David Uhlmann told Bloomberg News. However, Uhlmann concedes that federal personnel can’t fully stamp out the illegal shipments of HFCs entering the country, just as they have failed to do with respect to fentanyl and other illicit products entering the U.S. via the southern border.
“There are illegal shipments of HFCs that will evade detection at the border,” Uhlmann told Bloomberg News. “It’s simply not possible to stop all unlawful importation of HFCs, for the same reason that it’s impossible to stop all illegal efforts to introduce fentanyl into the country and to smuggle guns and other contraband into the country.”
Since fiscal year 2021, there have been at least 8 million encounters with illegal migrants at the southern border, according to CBP data. Of those encounters, more than 500,000 have been unaccompanied minors; the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General disclosed in a recent report that the Biden-Harris administration has effectively lost track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who entered the interior.
The agency has also recorded more than 600 encounters with individuals listed on the terrorist screening data set along the southern border since fiscal year 2021 as well.
Additionally, CBP reports that it has seized nearly 70,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border since fiscal year 2021, suggesting that overall fentanyl trafficking has increased and that large volumes of the deadly drug may be slipping into the U.S.
The EPA, CBP and the White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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