May 9—Sen. Ben Ray Luján and 13 of his fellow Democratic legislators are pushing the Trump administration to more aggressively pursue firearm smuggling.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the bust of a five-state drug trafficking organization earlier this week. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recovered more than 4 million fentanyl pills and $4.4 million in cash, as well as methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and weapons.
Luján, D-N.M., and his colleagues want the administration to continue a focus on drug trafficking, especially fentanyl, by bolstering interagency coordination and expanding border crossing inspections to stop American firearms from traveling south to Mexico. Sen. Martin Heinrich and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, both from New Mexico, have signed onto the letter.
“Put simply, if we do not stop the flow of American-made guns across the southern border to Mexico, we cannot stop the flow of fentanyl into our country over that same border,” the letter reads.
In a time characterized by partisan division, the call appears to align with the Republican Trump administration’s goals. When President Donald Trump signed an expansion on tariff exemptions for Mexico in February, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the two leaders agreed to work together to stop the flow of fentanyl from Mexico and guns from the U.S., according to a BBC report.
In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated eight Latin American cartels and gangs Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The letter points out the new designations could be used to sanction or fine people providing firearms to the criminal organizations: “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 letter reads.
The members of Congress urged Bondi and Rubio, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, to increase interagency cooperation to dismantle smuggling rings that facilitate weapons trafficking; expand border crossing inspections; increase law enforcement efforts against straw purchasers and firearm dealers; and strengthen intelligence-sharing with Mexican authorities.