Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, U.S. Congressmen Mike Waltz (FL-6) and Dan Crenshaw (TX-2) introduced legislation for an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Mexican cartels for trafficking lethal fentanyl and other related activities that have caused destabilization in the Western Hemisphere. In the last year alone, over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdose, primarily from fentanyl-related exposure.

Additionally, Mexican cartels have acted as paramilitary forces in their open warfare with the Mexican military that has created the conditions for massive influxes of illegal immigration across our southern border and further endangered American law enforcement.

“The situation at our southern border has become untenable for our law enforcement personnel largely due to the activities spurred by the heavily armed and well financed Sinola and Jalisco cartels,” said Waltz. “It’s time to go on offense. Not only are these paramilitary transnational criminal organizations responsible for killing an unprecedented number of Americans, but are actively undermining our sovereignty by destabilizing our border and waging war against U.S. law enforcement and the Mexican military. An AUMF would give the President sophisticated military cyber, intelligence, and surveillance resources to disrupt cartel operations that are endangering Americans. The U.S. was successful in assisting the Columbian government dismantle cartels in the 1990s and must do the same now.”

“The cartels are at war with us–poisoning almost 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year, creating a crisis at our border, and turning Mexico into a failed narco-state,” said Crenshaw. “It’s time we directly target them. My legislation will put us on a war footing against the cartels by authorizing the use of military force against them. We cannot continue to allow heavily armed and deadly cartels to destabilize Mexico and import people and drugs into the United States. We must start treating them like ISIS–because that is who they are.”