Morale at Our Southern Border

Our CBP law enforcement officers have borne the brunt of the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas border crisis. Everyday they face off against cartel terrorists, deal with thousands of migrant crossings, and serve an administration that is ambivalent about the crisis of their own making. Consequently, we have a serious morale and retention problem among our CBP officers. I have a new bill to address that.

The CBP Crisis Hardship and Incentive Pay Act would introduce a special pay incentive for CBP officers, with a maximum of $250 per pay period. They would also qualify for hazard payments for days they are hospitalized for injuries sustained due to the threat of armed cartels for up to three months after the fact.

Soldiers on deployment receive incentive pay for the dangers and hardships they face. But, by the grace of God, they always come back home after a certain period. CBP officers don’t get to leave and come back; they are there day in and day out, year after year. This bill doesn’t solve the border crisis, but it goes a long way to help us retain the men and women who risk their lives everyday for America’s sovereignty and security.

Declaring War on the Cartels

Declaring War on the Cartels

It’s time we hit the cartels where it hurts the most: their bank accounts.

Right now, Mexican cartels have complete control of our southern border. They are trafficking drugs and people into the U.S. every day. And yet the Biden administration has done absolutely nothing to reign in their abuse.

So on Wednesday, November 16 I introduce the Declaring War on the Cartels Act. This bill would significantly increase federal penalties for Mexican cartels & their enormous financial power. My bill would also sanction those who aid cartels and freeze aid to countries that enable cartel activity.

From Fox News:

The bill would make it punishable by up to 20 years for members of such organizations who are involved in crimes related to drugs, violence, fraud, human smuggling, immigration crimes and sex trafficking. It would also make cartel members and their family inadmissible to the U.S. and allow for the revocation of naturalized citizenship and green cards for those convicted of such activity.

Additionally, it would use existing federal powers to block cartel organizations from using U.S. financial institutions and allow for the seizure of assets — that would then be deposited into a “CARTEL fund” that would increase funding for law enforcement to go after cartels.

Of that funding, 75% would go to DHS agencies including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while the remainder would go to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The legislation would also allow for sanctions on those who aid cartels and to freeze foreign aid to countries who aid or do not prevent cartel activity.

Click here to read the full article about my bill

It’s long overdue that we take the cartels seriously. It’s time that we deter & target them the same way we do terrorists. That’s the only way we win.

America is at war with the Mexican drug cartels

America is at war with the Mexican drug cartels

America is at war with the Mexican drug cartels. Even if we aren’t on a war-footing, the cartels are. Recent drone footage showed Mexican cartels camping out just a few hundred yards from our border, in what is essentially a forward operating base. These bases are filled with cartel soldiers armed to the teeth with long guns and body armor. And one of their main sources of revenue – fentanyl – is flooding across our borders and killing Americans. In July, Border Patrol agents saw a nearly 200% jump in seizures of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border. Of the more than 108,000 overdose deaths last year, more than 80,000 were linked with fentanyl. Now the cartels are improvising with “rainbow fentanyl,”colored fentanyl pills disguised as candy. This is our biggest national security threat and it’s right on our doorstep, being fueled by Biden’s open border policies. We need to get on a war-footing now.