EXCLUSIVE: A bipartisan House duo is rolling out a plan on Wednesday to crack down on gun trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, are leading a bill that would beef up manpower at outbound inspection points at the southern border and require inspections for at least 10% of outbound transport from the U.S. to Mexico.
The Secretary of Homeland Security would then be required to write a report on those inspections and the feasibility of raising the minimum threshold up to 15 or 20%.
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Regarding personnel, the bill would direct Customs and Border Patrol to have at least 500 officers focused on inspecting the flow of goods and people from the U.S. into Mexico, as well as increased Homeland Security Investigations personnel who are specifically focused on currency and firearms smuggling investigations.
On the equipment front, the bipartisan legislation is also seeking to expand resources for southern border inspections, including 50 additional non-intrusive imaging systems, according to a summary previewed by Fox News Digital.
Crenshaw said the illegal flow of currency and firearms at the border “fuel the cartel’s war in Mexico and the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning Americans.”
“As it stands, U.S. Customs and Border Protection do not have the resources to monitor southbound flows — but this bill helps fix that and serves as a good step in taking the fight to the cartels and disrupts their business operations,” he said in a statement.
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Spanberger, invoking her background in criminal justice, said in a statement, “As a former CIA case officer who tracked cartels, I understand how these criminals smuggle firearms and bulk currency across our southern border to move the illicit proceeds that continue to fuel their criminal operations.”
“We must continue working to stem the flow of deadly fentanyl into our communities — and we can do so by working to cut off the steady supply of contraband that props up the drug trade,” she said.
Spanberger is leaving the House at the end of this year to run for governor of Virginia, and Republicans are eyeing her seat in the Washington, D.C., suburbs as a ripe pickup opportunity.
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Her emphasis on border security, with this bill and support for the now-defunct bipartisan Senate border deal, appears to be part of a wider paradigm shift for Democrats as they seek to hold onto the White House and Senate, as well as keep the House, in November.
Vulnerable Democrats in particular have emphasized their support for the border deal, which was eventually killed by an avalanche of GOP opposition, as the migrant crisis continues to burden cities and states around the country.
Spanberger and Crenshaw’s bill is called the Enhancing Southbound Inspections to Combat Cartels Act. It has a companion bill in the Senate led by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and James Langford, R-Okla. — one of the architects of the original Senate border deal.
Even with bipartisan support, however, it’s not clear the new House bill will see a chamber-wide vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other GOP opponents of the Biden administration have responded to its calls for increased funding at the border with arguments that more money is not a sufficient solution to what they see as fundamentally flawed policies.
Democrats in turn have accused Republicans of using the border crisis as a political football.