Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) reintroduced the “Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act,” more familiarly known as the “EL CHAPO Act,” House companion legislation to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Senate bill by the same name on Wednesday.
The EL CHAPO Act reserves approximately $14 billion in assets forfeited to the United States Government as a result of the criminal prosecution of El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, as well as other drug lords, for border security funding measures to include construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Brooks also sponsored the EL CHAPO Act in the 115th Congress.
“Radical Open Borders Democrats would rather shut down the government than provide taxpayer funding for a border wall that helps prevent thousands of American deaths each year. Fortunately, there are other ways to build a border wall, enhance border security, save American lives, and end the government shutdown that is slowly but sure hurting America’s economy and American citizens,” Brooks stated. “Congress should end the shutdown by passing the EL CHAPO Act that, over time, funds border security and a border wall by using billions of dollars in seized drug and blood money profits from drug cartels and drug lords and reapplying those drug forfeiture monies to border security and construction of a border wall. The EL CHAPO Act kills two birds with one stone. 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.”
The congressman also discussed the meaning of walls and outlined how walls have worked for centuries.
“Walls have worked since the dawn of time. Ancient civilizations employed walls to keep their citizens and property safe from harm. 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. Why? Because they work,” Brooks said. “It is absurd for anyone to argue border walls are ineffective. Take the example of the Yuma, Arizona sector of the border, where border patrol agents have seen a 96 percent reduction in illegal alien apprehensions since a border wall was constructed in 2006. Along the San Diego sector of the border, before a wall was built, 100,000 illegal aliens were apprehended by border patrol a year. Post wall construction, the number of apprehensions dropped to 5,000 a year— a reduction of 95%. The fact is, border walls work.”
He added, “America desperately needs a border wall. The United States averages a staggering 60,000 illegal border crossings per month. I introduced the EL CHAPO Act in the House to divert approximately $14 billion in funds confiscated by prosecutors from drug lords like El Chapo to building the border wall. Drug lords smuggle deadly drugs across our border that ravage America. Roughly 15,000 Americans die each year from heroin overdoses alone – 90% of all heroin reaches America via our porous southern border (much of it transported by drug cartels and their illegal alien “mules”). We need to be doing everything we can to keep poisonous drugs out of our country and save American lives, and that means building the wall.”
Brooks also outlined the safety concerns that an unsecured southern border pose.
“America’s porous southern border poses a massive safety risk to American citizens. In FY 2017 and FY 2018, ICE officers arrested approximately 235,000 aliens on various criminal charges or convictions within the interior of the United States – including, on average each year, roughly 50,000 for assault, 15,000 for sex crimes, and 2,000 for homicides,” he explained. “In FY 2018, 17,000 adults at the border with existing criminal records were arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and border agents. If illegal aliens will break our immigration laws, they will break other laws, too.”
Brooks also made it clear that a wall would not fix all of the problems posed by the southern border, but outlined how a physical barrier would help immensely with border security.
“A border wall is a subpart of overall border security. It will not keep out all drugs or every illegal alien, but we owe it to the victims of drug overdoses and illegal alien crime to do absolutely everything in our power to stop illegal aliens and their drugs from coming across our southern border and killing thousands of Americans every year! The EL CHAPO Act funds a large portion of the border wall without using taxpayer dollars and provides an alternative funding mechanism for the border wall. With the EL CHAPO Act we can end the current impasse and resulting government shutdown. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should listen to the American people and come to the negotiating table so we can secure our border,” he concluded.
Kyle Morris also contributes daily to Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @RealKyleMorris.
