With just five days until the election, Donald Trump’s campaign has a simple message. It alleges that illegal immigrants are bringing drugs and crime to North Carolina, and that Kamala Harris is responsible.
The state capital, Raleigh, is more than 1,500 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
In semi-rural Rockingham County, near the city of Greensboro, Sheriff Sam Page, a Republican and anti-immigration activist at the border, is carrying that message despite the distance.
He says an uncontrolled border brings crime to North Carolina. He has also received personal praise from Donald Trump.
Sheriff Sam Page believes in Donald Trump as president. (It is included.)
”[An uncontrolled border] It brings criminal activity, it brings drugs. It’s leading to human trafficking,” Sheriff Page said on July 30.
“And one of the biggest talking points that I’ve seen ignored over the last several months by this last administration is the Mexican drug cartels.”
Sheriff Page said the cartel has also expanded into Rockingham County, whose quiet Main Street and high-rise buildings are dominated by the long-defunct Lucky Strike Tobacco Factory.
Sheriff Sam Page said the cartel has reached Rockingham County. (ABC News: Craig Hansen)
“Don’t joke, they’re here,” he said.
“If you have someone selling drugs like methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, they are working for a cartel.”
politicized tragedy
The synthetic opioid fentanyl is estimated to be responsible for 107,000 deaths in the United States last year, and about 3,500 in North Carolina alone. It is more powerful than heroin and even small amounts can be fatal.
Fentanyl killed Barbara Walsh’s 24-year-old daughter Sophia in 2021. She drank from a bottle she didn’t know had been laced with drugs.
Sophia Walsh died after accidentally ingesting fentanyl. (Included)
Barbara Walsh is currently running a campaign to educate people about the drug’s toxicity and is pushing for the antidote naloxone to be introduced in schools across the state.
“No one is safe from fentanyl,” Walsh said.
“Fentanyl doesn’t discriminate. It kills the rich, it kills the poor. It doesn’t care about the color of your skin, your gender, your intelligence, your education.”
She agrees that fentanyl has become politicized, but is careful not to weigh in on the heated debate over who is responsible for the drugs coming into the United States.
“We need political solutions, we need policy solutions, we need educational solutions,” Ms. Walsh said at 7:30.
Barbara’s daughter died after drinking a bottle laced with fentanyl. (ABC News: Craig Hansen)
“We need precautions and politics can help or hurt. And now I want politics to be involved in helping.”
“Very, very scary.”
There are approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants in North Carolina, but there is no evidence that they are involved in importing fentanyl into the region.
Most immigrants come to North Carolina to work in low-wage jobs such as agricultural labor, and criminologists say undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes than U.S. citizens.
Barbara Walsh is pushing to bring naloxone to schools across the state. (ABC News: Craig Hansen)
It is estimated that 94 percent of farm workers in the United States speak Spanish, and 53 percent of farm workers are illegal aliens.
But the language used by Donald Trump and his campaign confuses immigration, crime and fentanyl.
“Millions of illegal immigrants, traffickers, and drugs have flown into our country, and our country is in hell,” one ad declares.
“Americans will continue to lose lives because Kamala won’t change anything,” says another.
Iliana Santillane, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, told 7:30 that the language has an impact on immigrants already living in North Carolina.
Iliana Santillan said many in her community are afraid of the language used by Donald Trump and his supporters. (ABC News: Craig Hansen)
“When I look at our community, I see their faces, I look at the children, I look at the mothers, I look at the families, I look at the workers, and I think it’s hard to imagine that people would think that about a community like ours. ” said Santillan.
Santillan himself became an illegal immigrant because his family overstayed their visas. She is now a U.S. citizen and active in North Carolina’s Latino community, many of whom fear the language used by Trump and his supporters.
She said she is concerned about a repeat of the deportations implemented in North Carolina during the previous Trump administration.
Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. (ABC News: Craig Hansen)
“I think the general sentiment is very frightening. We hope something like this never happens again, but our state has never seen such a large-scale overseas operation under the Trump administration. “We’ve seen expulsions and raids happening,” she said.
Illegal immigrants have a difficult life in the United States. They have no health insurance, are limited to low-wage, cash jobs, cannot travel home to see relatives, and are unable to obtain driver’s licenses, putting them at constant risk of arrest. has been. they drive
Edith Percastigui has lived in the United States as an illegal immigrant for 23 years.
She has spent her life here working in low-paying jobs such as picking fruit.
Her two sons were born here, so they are U.S. citizens and cannot be deported, but Edith is concerned about President Trump’s pledge to begin rounding up illegal immigrants.
“It’s just scary to think that people could be deported and things could get worse,” she said.
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