BOISE, Idaho — Congressman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) is taking a narrowly tailor path to defend his seat in D.C. ahead of the May primary elections - blame President Joe Biden and the southern border for everything.
Across two TV ads airing on KTVB, Simpson points to Biden and the border for an increase in gang activity, human trafficking, fentanyl deaths and election fraud. None of the ads cite a source for any of these claims.
Gang Activity
Tracking the trends in gang activity is nearly impossible on a nationwide level due to the collapse of the annual National Youth Gang Survey. From 1996 to 2012, gang acitivty dipped then returned to nearly unchanged levels. The Department of Justice cut funding in 2012 to end the survey.
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is on the rise in Idaho. In 2023, KTVB reported Idaho police saw human trafficking cases increase 414% from 2021 to 2022. However, the crime is inherently quite unseen. The spike is believed to be a representation of law enforcement better tracking the perpetrators.
Statement from Simpson's Campaign:
Homeland Security Investigations found in 2022 that smuggling migrants across the border generates over $13 billion for the cartels. Here's an article that talks about that.
Fentanyl Deaths
Idaho law enforcement agencies call fentanyl a crisis. The number of lives claimed by the synthetic opioid has been on the rise since 2013, according to date from the CDC. Synthetic opioids officially overtook heroin in 2015 and has skyrocketed since.
Biden came into office in 2020. CDC data shows fentanyl continues to be an uncontrollable issue under his administration.
Statement from Simpson's Campaign:
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection also show that over 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the southern border in FY 2023 (and 549,000 pounds of drugs total in FY 2023). We can see the impact of the increased volume of fentanyl circulating nationwide here in Idaho. According to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, between 2020 and 2022 the rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths tripled in Idaho. Almost half of overdose deaths in that time period involved fentanyl.
Election Integrity
Simpson's latest ad claims Biden's open border has welcomed 10 million illegal immigrants that he intends to use for democratic votes to stay in office.
PEW Research Center estimated 10.5 million people lived in the United States illegally in 2023. Most of these people had been in the country for decades and overstayed visas. Simpson calls on voter ID laws to ensure no illegal immigrants vote in American elections.
Idaho law already mandates a government issued photo ID to vote in an election. These laws vary from state to state. Oregon and California, for example, do not require a photo ID.
Statement from Simpson's Campaign:
"Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show over 9.6 million encounters with illegal migrants nationwide from the beginning of President Biden's administration through March 2024. Additionally, the House Committee on Homeland Security released a fact sheet in late March 2024 stating that "over 1.8 million known gotaways have evaded U.S. Border Patrol under this administration." The fact sheet includes a quote from testimony by the former chief of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) stating that the number of gotaways could be undercounted by as much as 20%. In a radio interview earlier this month, President Biden referred to migrants as voters."
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