When it comes to constructing a wall at the southern border, one GOP member of Congress is offering a simple suggestion on how to get the funds for it.
Rep. Vern Buchanan wrote a Fox News op-ed published on Tuesday and suggested that Congress should divert the funds made by Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera to help secure the U.S.- Mexico border.
El Chapo is a well know convicted drug lord who will be sentenced on Tuesday to a lifetime in prison after smuggling loads of drugs into our country and being found guilty in February on ten counts.
“It’s time to put his confiscated assets to work building a wall at the southern border with Mexico,” Rep. Vern Buchanan said.
The Republican lawmaker’s comments come as the border with Mexico sees a continued surge of immigrants, leaving the Dems in Congress butting heads with President Trump over additional funds as border services’ funds are already low.
When questioning where the $14 billion drug money will go once El Chapo is behind bars, Rep. Buchanan looks to Congress to pass the “El Chapo Act” — a proposal introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz. This would “divert billions of dollars’ worth of his seized assets for a much-needed purpose — to help secure the Southern border.”
“With the end of El Chapo’s reign of wreaking havoc on the American and Mexican people, we have a real opportunity to use his assets to save lives,” Rep. Buchanan said. “Time for Congress to get the El CHAPO Act to President Trump’s desk.”
Rep. Buchanan’s call comes after Ted Cruz claimed that after proposing the El Chapo Act, he discussed it with the President, who “has said that he’s strongly supportive.”
Sen. Ted Cruz stated that the “elegant solution” is to “use El Chapo’s ill-gotten gains, that he got by crossing the border illegally, trafficking narcotics into the U.S., and to use those billions to pay for preventing future narco-traffickers or human traffickers from continuing to cross the border illegally.”