EXCLUSIVE — A
border
state lawmaker will debut a bill to stomp out
fentanyl
production and smuggling by
Mexican
criminal organizations formulated to appeal to both
Democrats
and
Republicans
.
The forthcoming Declaring War on the Cartels Act of 2023 from Rep.
Dan Crenshaw
(R-TX) would drastically expand the U.S. government’s ability to go after cross-border organized crime rings, known as cartels, but it would stop short of declaring them terrorist organizations, which further-right conservatives have pushed for.
Fentanyl is “often laced into other drugs [users] think they’re taking. This is not a typical drug problem. This is a poisoning problem. So they need to be treated as an enemy,” Crenshaw said in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “In the last few years, the cartels have drastically increased their fentanyl trafficking, which is poison, effectively, murdering tens of thousands of Americans a year.”
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine, was unlike other illegal drugs on U.S. streets, he said.
“This is coming from two specific cartels: Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels,” said Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL officer who represents a Houston-area district. “We have a target here, so let’s do it.”
Any foreign government determined to be in cahoots with cartels or that has failed to adequately quell cartel activity may be sanctioned and lose U.S. financial aid provided through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. The military would also be permitted to take action under his legislation.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean just dropping bombs right away. Diplomatically, it means that we have a whole new leverage over the government. The Mexican government does not like to deal with this problem. They like to ignore it,” said Crenshaw, who added Mexico was limited in its ability to overthrow cartels that recently killed nearly 30 people in a battle against federal forces. “This is obviously a real war. And they obviously need our help. And we should have an authorization to allow that. I think this gives the president leverage. And I would think it’d be a win.”
Punishments for any person convicted of being an accessory to a cartel-related crime would see an addition of 15 years. Naturalized citizens could lose citizenship under the legislation Crenshaw plans to introduce as soon as Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security and secretary of state would be required to create a group to oversee efforts in countries affected by the cartels.
DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations arm would work with the FBI and other government agencies to investigate corruption between cartels and foreign governments, as well as between U.S. federal, state, and local governments and cartels, under the legislation shared with the Washington Examiner.
Recovered funds from cartel activities would go into a coffer called the Cartel Fund. Each year ,the money would be given to the government — 75% to the DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and 25% to the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration.
Crenshaw said he did not include language that would identify the cartels as “terrorists” because it could make an entire country eligible to make refugee or asylum claims.
“I don’t designate them as terrorists,” he said. “The one reason I don’t do that is because that could potentially create an entire class of asylum-seekers from Mexico coming across the border.”
Crenshaw said what also makes this bill different was that it was not lip service or meant to woo his supporters.
“This isn’t about border security, about immigration. Obviously, cartels are related to those things,” he said. “This is about saving lives — about stopping the flow of fentanyl.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The stipulations in his legislation would apply to the Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, Beltran-Levya, Gulf, Los Zetas, Tijuana, and La Familia Michoacana/Knights Templar cartels.
Crenshaw has secured five Republican co-sponsors and hopes to add Democrats to that list.
