North Carolina is a swing state in this US election. Thousands of kilometres from the Mexico border immigrants and fentanyl are being made into one issue

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North Carolina is a swing state in this US election. Thousands of kilometres from the Mexico border immigrants and fentanyl are being made into one issue

时间：2024-11-01 05:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

With just five days until the election, Donald Trump's campaign is hammering home a simple message: Illegal immigrants bring drugs and crime to North Carolina — and they say Kamala Harris is to blame.

The state capital of Raleigh is more than 2,400 kilometres from the US/Mexico border.

Despite that distance, in semi-rural Rockingham County, near the city of Greensboro, that message is delivered by Sheriff Sam Page, a Republican and a campaigner against immigration at the border.

He says an uncontrolled border is bringing crime to North Carolina; he has also personally been lauded by Donald Trump.

Sheriff Sam Page believes in Donald Trump as president.

"[An uncontrolled border] brings criminal activity, brings drugs. brings human trafficking," Sheriff Page told 7.30.

"And one of the biggest points that I've seen ignored over the past several months in this past administration is the Mexican drug cartels."

Sheriff Page says the cartels have even made it to Rockingham County, with its sedate main street and skyline dominated by the long-defunct Lucky Strike cigarette factory.

Sheriff Sam Page says the cartels have made it to Rockingham County.

"Don't kid yourself. They're here," he said.

"If a person is selling those drugs, the methamphetamines, the heroin, the fentanyl, any of the cocaine, any they're selling those products, they're working for the cartel."

Politicised tragedy

Synthetic opioid fentanyl is estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of 107,000 people in the United States last year, and around 3,500 people in North Carolina alone. It's much stronger than heroin, and a tiny dose can be fatal.

Fentanyl killed Barbara Walsh's 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, in 2021. She drank from a bottle that she did not know had been laced with the drug.

Sophia Walsh lost her life after accidentally ingesting fentanyl.

Barbara Walsh now campaigns to educate people about the toxicity of the drug, and is pushing to have the antidote naloxone introduced to the state's schools.

"No one is safe from fentanyl," Ms Walsh said.

"Fentanyl does not discriminate. It kills rich people, it kills poor people. It doesn't care what colour you are, or what gender you are, or your intelligence, how much schooling you have."

She agrees that fentanyl has become a politicised issue — but is careful not to take sides in the highly-charged argument about who is to blame for the drug being brought into the US.

"We need political solutions, we need policy solutions, we need education solutions," Ms Walsh told 7.30.

Barbara's daughter died after she drank from a bottle that was laced with fentanyl.

"We need prevention solutions, and politics can help or hurt. And right now, I would like to see politics involved to help."

'Very, very scary'

North Carolina has around 300,000 undocumented migrants, but there's no evidence that they're responsible for the importation of fentanyl to the area.

Most migrants come to North Carolina to work in low-paying jobs, like agricultural labouring and criminologists say undocumented migrants are no more likely to be involved in violent crime than US citizens.

Barbara Walsh is pushing to have naloxone introduced to the state's schools.

Ninety-four per cent of agricultural labourers in the US are Spanish speaking and it's estimated that 53 per cent of farm workers are undocumented.

But the language used by Donald Trump and his campaign conflates migrants with crime and fentanyl.

"Millions of illegal immigrants, traffickers and drugs coming into our country, our country has gone to hell," declares one advertisement.
"Kamala won't change a thing so Americans will continue to lose their lives," says another.

Iliana Santillan, who came to the US from Mexico as a child, told 7.30 that language is affecting the migrants already living in North Carolina.

Iliana Santillan says many in her community are terrified of the language being used by Donald Trump and his supporters.

"When you see our community, and you see their faces, and you see the children and the mums and the families and the workers, and it's just like, I can't imagine people thinking those things about the same community we are," Ms Santillan said.

Ms Santillan herself became an illegal immigrant when her family overstayed its visa. She is now a US citizen and works with North Carolina's Latino community, many of whom are terrified of the language being used by Trump and his supporters.

She says they're worried about a repeat of deportations carried out in North Carolina during the last Trump administration.

Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina.

"I think the general sentiment is very, very scary, and we hope that doesn't happen again, but we've seen deportations and raids at this scale in our state happen under a Trump administration," she said.

Undocumented migrants have a difficult life in the US. They're not covered by health insurance, they're confined to low-wage, cash jobs, they can't travel home to see relatives, and they can't obtain a driver's licence — which puts them at risk of arrest every time they drive.

Edith Percastigui has lived for 23 years in the US as an undocumented immigrant.

She's spent her life here working low-paid jobs like fruit picking.

Her two sons were born here — so they are US citizens and cannot be deported — but Edith worries about Trump's vows to start rounding up illegal immigrants.

"It's just scary to think that people could get deported and things could get worse," she said.

Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV

By：ABC

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