The lie is that the migrants are bringing fentanyl, the highly addictive opioid behind most lethal overdoses. About the author Susan Benesch is the executive director of the Dangerous Speech Project, where Catherine Buerger is the director of research. And it’s working to terrible effect: Americans are increasingly convinced that migrants are to blame for the fentanyl crisis. That is raising the risk of violent confrontations with migrants as well as federal Border Patrol agents. It’s vital for influential people to refute the fentanyl lie, which creates similar risks of violence against a particular group, in this case migrants.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 19, 2024 09:05 UTC