Researcher ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8694-135X

Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

John J. Pitney

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2026 Madeline F Nesbitt

Abstract

This thesis explains how a false link between undocumented immigration and fentanyl becomes widely accepted in the United States. Empirical data show that most fentanyl enters through legal ports of entry and that U.S. citizens account for the majority of those caught transporting it. Why, then, do 41% of Americans attribute overdose deaths to migrants trafficking fentanyl? This project examines how this myth is built, repeated, and sustained, and what policy consequences follow from it.

When complex social problems lack clear culprits, political actors often manufacture them through scapegoating. Current literature documents how political actors link immigrants to drug crimes, but it does not track how this messaging shifts across platforms or explain it through a broader theory of scapegoating. Using primary sources, including X posts, press releases, and congressional hearings, I measure how often fentanyl and immigration are linked across different modes of political communication. The results show a consistent gap between evidence and messaging that tracks levels of scrutiny. In congressional hearings, only 5.4% of fentanyl-related sentences include immigration language. In press releases, the rate rises to 12.7%. On social media, 64.7% of posts contain some form of linkage, with 16.4% making direct claims that immigrants traffic fentanyl. These findings show that the fentanyl-immigration connection is constructed through rhetoric rather than grounded in data. By shifting blame away from policy decisions and structural drivers of the crisis, this narrative directs attention toward immigrants and supports enforcement-based responses instead of evidence-based solutions that reduce overdose deaths.

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