More than a dozen House Republicans proposed a bill this week that would let the Trump administration use billions of dollars worth of assets seized from drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to build the southern border wall.
President Trump has been battling Democrats for weeks to secure $5.7 billion in funds to expand the border wall, a fight that has led to a government shutdown for five weeks.
But legislation from Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., would reserve up to $14 billion seized from “El Chapo” for the construction project. “El Chapo” is being tried in federal district court in Brooklyn, and Brooks said the fight with Democrats over money would become much easier if Trump had access to seized funds from the Mexican drug lord.
[Previous coverage: Mexican drug cartels would pay for the wall under GOP bill]
“The EL CHAPO Act kills two birds with one stone,” Brooks said. “On the one hand, it shifts drug and blood money to border security and a border wall, thus helping to save the lives of thousands of Americans who die each year at the hands of illegal aliens or because of America’s porous southern border.”
“As a bonus, the passage of the EL CHAPO Act ends the battle over the government shutdown,” he added.
Brooks’ bill is the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Prove Order Act, or the EL CHAPO Act.
Brooks’ bill is a House companion to legislation introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Cruz and Brooks introduced their legislation in the last Congress, but it never moved in the House or Senate. This time around, Brooks’ bill has 15 Republican cosponsors.
Brooks said he backs Trump’s call for a border wall because walls work.
“Today, physical barriers and fencing surround America’s most secure locations — the White House, Fort Knox, the federal supermax prison in Colorado; all have high physical barriers around them,” he said. “Why? Because they work. It is absurd for anyone to argue border walls are ineffective.”
