Sens. Ben Sasse and Mike Lee sent a letter to the FBI, secretary of state, and secretary of the treasury, asking them to implement sanctions against Mexico’s drug cartels following the murder of Americans at the cartels’ hands.
“Mexican cartels slaughtered nine Americans, including babies,” Nebraska Republican Sasse said in a statement on Monday. “The Administration ought to use every legal avenue to bring these butchers to justice. Sanctions ought to be the first step in a coordinated effort to wage a smart, full-scale offensive against the cartels and gangs that are terrorizing our southern border.”
“This attack has removed any pretense that the violence south of the U.S. border is contained,” Lee, Sasse’s Utah colleague, added. “Mexico is leaning dangerously toward becoming a failed state. The cartels and gangs must know that the United States will respond to ensure they do not continue to threaten the American people.”
The pair asked the FBI to give them a briefing on the administration’s efforts in the wake of the cartel murders, 60 days after it concluded the joint investigation into the murders with the Mexican government. The senators requested the briefing include “the implementation and effect on sanctions and informal pressure of the Mexican government in a matter that better aligns with the safety and security of the American people.”
Lee and Sasse said the sanctions could be authorized under the authority of the Kingspin Act and the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
“This crime cannot go unpunished,” they wrote. “The cartels and the Mexican government must unequivocally understand the United States will respond strongly to the violence and corruption of the cartels.”
The letter follows the gruesome death of nine Americans at the hands of the Mexican drug cartels, including three women and six children. President Trump offered the Mexican government help to “wipe” the drug cartels “off the face of the earth,” but the Mexican president declined, saying he preferred “hugs, not bullets.”
