WASHINGTON DC (KOLO) – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is urging federal action be taken to stop the illegal trafficking of guns over the U.S. southern border.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and AG Pam Bondi, she, as well as three other Senate Democrats, urged the Trump administration to use its recent designation of Latin American drug cartels as foreign terror organizations to take aggressive action against the trafficking of guns into the U.S.
The lawmakers say that between 200,000 and 500,000 American guns are smuggled across U.S. borders into Mexico every year, arming cartels.
“We were pleased that President Trump agreed to address the outflow of hundreds of thousands of American-made firearms across the southern border when he initially postponed the implementation of tariffs on our ally Mexico. Accordingly, we urge you to utilize the FTO designation to take aggressive action to stem the flow of American guns to the cartels,” the members wrote.
“The new FTO designation for these cartels provides additional legal tools to bolster interagency coordination, disrupt their financial networks, and impose stricter penalties on those who provide material support to these criminal enterprises. Specifically, under current statute, it is unlawful to knowingly provide material support or resources to a Foreign Terrorist Organization and those who do so can be fined or imprisoned for up to 20 years,” the members continued.
“We hope that you move swiftly and use these new legal authorities to combat southbound arms trafficking. We stand ready to assist in this effort in any way we can, including through legislation that expands your programmatic authorities to address this critical issue,” the members concluded.
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