21-05-2025
KY's GOP attorney general travels to border to show solidarity with Trump crackdown
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman speaks during a press conference with the Republican Attorneys General Association at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Kentucky Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman joined some of his counterparts from other states at the U.S. border with Mexico Wednesday to back Trump administration efforts to bolster security at the site.
In a press conference live streamed by the Republican Attorneys General Association, Coleman said the attorneys general heard in an earlier briefing that during the Biden administration, the border had an average of 1,500 illegal crossings a day, now down to an average of four a day — the result, Coleman said, of 'solid leadership' by President Donald Trump.
Coleman pointed to Trump administration efforts to tackle smuggling illegal drugs like fentanyl across the border and thanked border agents for their work. In 2024, 1,410 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, according to the 2024 Drug Overdose Fatality Report. While that report found Kentucky's overdose deaths have declined over the last three years, the state still has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder in the United States.
'The lack of border security has resulted in empty chairs at kitchen tables, empty seats at pews and workers not clocking in in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,' Coleman said.
Ahead of the press conference, Coleman said in a post on X that he and the other attorneys general are joining Trump 'to secure the southwest border and keep deadly drugs and violent criminals out of Kentucky.'
Coleman led a coalition of attorneys general earlier this year asking Trump administration officials via a letter for greater scrutiny of an import pilot program, Entry Type 86. It allows small packages to enter the U.S. with minimal customs screening. A press release from Coleman's office argued the program could be 'used by adversaries and drug traffickers to flood deadly fentanyl into the United States.'
The Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, backs Republican attorneys general candidates across the country.
Coleman, who was elected as Kentucky's attorney general in 2023, ran on national issues like securing the southwest border. Last year, he was among Republican attorneys general and Kentucky politicians voicing solidarity with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott against the Biden administration over blocking U.S. Border Patrol access to part of the border with Mexico. This year, Coleman joined other Republican attorneys general in court to back the Trump administration's efforts to deport Venezuelan migrants.
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