Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) have introduced a bill that would allow the president to use military force against drug cartels smuggling fentanyl across the southern border.
The two Republicans say the violent cartels have destabilized the Mexican border to the extent that the tools available to local law enforcement, the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Mexican military are no longer enough to stem the flow of drugs. An authorization for the use of military force would give President Joe Biden the ability to send the military’s intelligence resources to the border.
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“The cartels are at war with us — poisoning more than 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year, creating a crisis at our border, and turning Mexico into a failed narco-state,” Crenshaw said in a statement. “It’s time we directly target them. My legislation will put us at war with the cartels by authorizing the use of military force against the cartels. We cannot allow heavily armed and deadly cartels to destabilize Mexico and import people and drugs into the United States. We must start treating them like ISIS — because that is who they are.”
Waltz said that “an AUMF would give the President sophisticated military cyber, intelligence, and surveillance resources to disrupt cartel operations that are endangering Americans,” especially the most prolific fentanyl-dealing Sinaloa cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The two congressmen, who both served in the military, said they have limited the scope of the AUMF so that it won’t target “foreign persons” outside the U.S. and expires after five years.
Securing the border is one of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) promises in the new Republican House majority. He has threatened to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) introduced three articles of impeachment on Monday, including one accusing him of lying in a congressional hearing in which he stated that the border is secure.
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“The record-breaking number of illegal alien encounters, including over 1,000,000 known ‘gotaways’, as well as the record seizures of deadly fentanyl and other contraband, prove that Secretary Mayorkas has not ensured operational control of the southern border,” Fallon wrote in the second impeachment article.
The Drug Enforcement Administration reported seizing over 50.6 million fentanyl pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, and the drug is now the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45. It is mostly produced in China and then can be smuggled into the U.S. by cartels.
