GOP Senator Wants Cartels to Pay for Border Wall

Mexico obviously isn’t going to pay for President Trump’s border wall, and it’s looking like taxpayers aren’t either. 

That’s why Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is proposing legislation that would use money confiscated from Mexican cartels to build a wall that will keep them out. 

“The cartels move about $110 billion dollars a year from the US to Mexico,” says Cassidy. “If we can stop that, confiscate the money, we can use cartel money to build the wall.”

Cassidy in February introduced legislation that would use government bonds to fund increased border security and then repay those bonds with money collected from traffickers. 

“It won’t be the Mexican government [paying for the wall]; it will be the Mexican cartels, and that’s probably the better party to bill there.”

Cassidy also insisted that local government officials, like Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, should “pay consequences” for their “illegal” behavior. Schaaf in February was criticized for warning immigrants about an imminent ICE raid. 

“If you have a mayor who’s subverting the law, allowing people who are criminals to beat it out, before they get arrested and then in some cases, those criminals go out and commit other crimes, there should be a consequence on a federal level, but ideally the voters would vote them out. Most voters want safe streets, not less safe streets.”

Editor’s note: This is not such a bad idea, but the confiscated money goes to the Treasury anyway. I’m thinking I still want Mexico to fork over some cash.