WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) -– As President Biden’s new Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram takes on the opioids crisis, some think the president's border and police reform policies make her job harder.
Can DEA keep drugs out of the country if lax security persists on the southern border? Can DEA take the initiative against gangs and dealers if Biden signs legislation that bans surprise raids and lets suspects sue agents for actions taken in the line of duty?
Today, Mexican cartels are able to flood American streets with fentanyl, which causes most overdose deaths, the DEA acknowledges. Law enforcement seems increasingly unable to keep drugs south of the Rio Grande or interdict them once they hit U.S. streets.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly called for Biden to take a more aggressive approach, saying earlier this year that “lives are at stake as dangerous drugs like fentanyl pour into our communities…we must act now to crack down on this proliferation of this deadly drug."
Before COVID, Milgram’s predecessors at DEA had routinely been hauled up to Capitol Hill for criticism of the agency’s handling of the opioid epidemic, which killed 93,000 Americans last year, according to recent findings of the CDC. Milgram could be next on the hot seat when Congressional oversight hearings begin amid an unrelenting opioid crisis.
Questions would likely focus on increased fentanyl trafficking over the southern border and how police reforms backed by the White House and Justice Department would impact DEA in the war on drugs. The Administration strongly supports the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which would end qualified immunity for federal, state and local law enforcement personnel and ban “no knock” warrants.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which advocates for state and local officers, strongly opposes those measures but the Justice Department has raised no objections on behalf of front-line DEA field agents, who would also be impacted.
Unlike earlier years, the DEA won’t be able to shift blame to companies in the American prescription drug industry - they’re busy battling thousands of lawsuits brought by partnerships of government officials and private lawyers working on contingency fees. The current crisis revolves almost entirely around illegal drugs and the gangs, dealers and cartels who distribute them.
“Administrator Milgram will be judged on her ability to rein in illegal opioids, but some of the Administration’s policies make her job harder,” said Dan McLagan, a political and former health industry strategist.
Milgram, former New Jersey Attorney General (2007-2010) was confirmed by the Senate on June 24. She is the first permanent DEA administrator since the Obama administration. Since 2015, there have been five acting administrators and all have faced withering criticism from both parties in Congress.
In 2019, the Justice Department, which oversees DEA, issued a damning Office of Inspector General report that blamed the agency for rapidly increasing production quotas for opioids as overdose deaths increased and for failing to use tools like its nationwide ARCOS database to detect and block suspicious order patterns.
Given the sharp rise in opioid deaths and DEA’s central role in dealing with illegal drug-related disease and deaths, Milgram will find it difficult to avoid Congressional scrutiny.
"She's in a tough spot," McLagan said. “She’ll be the one answering questions if the DEA can’t get fentanyl under control.”