Chairman Mast Leads GOP Debate Against Democrats’ Ploy to Tie President Trump’s Hands From Defending the U.S. From Cartel Terrorists
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast led debate on the House Floor in opposition to a Democrat-led resolution to block President Trump from defending the U.S. from designated cartel terrorists operating in the Western Hemisphere.
-Remarks-
Right now, we have cartels operating in our backyard. They are kidnapping Americans, extorting families, trafficking women and children, and flooding our towns with fentanyl to maximize death and addiction on American soil.
Someone tell me that I’m wrong. I don’t hear anything. Just look at the images next to me. It’s not Photoshopped.
None of this is new, it’s just new that it’s being defeated by President Trump. Brought to an end by President Trump.
This violence comes from the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels, Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Cartel of the Suns, headed by Nicolas Maduro, to name just a few.
The president has every bit of Article II authority to defend the United States of America from these imminent threats. These cartels that are doing this are an imminent threat.
These cartels have tens of thousands of members who wake up every day and see it as their sole mission to flood the United States with lethal drugs. But my Democrat colleagues want to ignore it.
Sinaloa and Jalisco alone have nearly 45,000 members combined; Gulf Cartel 50,000 members; MS-13, another 30,000.
They’re coming across the Gulf constantly. 365 days a year, 7 days a week, they are coming to the United States of America with their violence. That is the definition of imminent.
These drug cartels are highly organized, militarized. They are terrorist networks that have convinced my colleagues that they are nothing more than small street gangs.
They control territory, run armed convoys, use drones for surveillance, communicate through encrypted networks like the military. They terrorize entire countries with extreme violence, and they terrorize the United States of America and our people.
They spread carnage wherever they go. Not just across the border, but on our side of the border as well — right here in the United States of America.
Look at this morbid scene. These are two men about to be decapitated, literally out in the open by the Gulf cartel.
The tactics of these cartels are the same as those used by al-Qaeda and ISIS. These are terrorist networks.
Some are given safe haven by foreign governments. Others, like Tren de Aragua, take orders from Nicolas Maduro.
And, I can tell you that Americans are paying the price for it. Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered in Georgia by a confirmed member of Tren de Aragua. Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless were executed outside their Bronx apartment by six Tren de Aragua terrorists. These were neighbors of my ranking member. A 74-year-old American rancher was killed near Brownsville, Texas, when his truck hit a cartel-planted IED, just like what took my legs from me.
But Democrats don’t want the president to be able to defend America from these terrorists.
Even more tragic is the fact that nearly 80,000 Americans overdosed last year on fentanyl, cocaine, and other cartel-trafficked drugs. But Democrats don’t want to protect you from that either.
In fact, yesterday, we had a classified briefing, the gentleman on my left went directly to the press to claim that these strikes were not protecting America. Literally said these strikes were not “stopping drugs.”
Everything he said is easy to prove wrong. Every drug boat sunk is literally drugs not coming to the United States of America. Every narco-terrorist killed is an American life — like Laken Riley or Claretha Daniels — saved.
The threat is pressing, and it's frequent. In November, the Coast Guard announced it seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean since the start of 2025. This is enough cocaine to harm nearly 170 MILLION Americans.
Congressional authorization is not required to carry out precise, limited strikes. My colleagues did not object when prior presidents conducted military operations in Yemen, in Libya, and Syria – operations which were also limited and successful.
This resolution is also reckless and poorly written. It prevents the president from acting against any foreign terrorist organizations in the Western Hemisphere.
Under this resolution, the president could strike al-Qaeda or ISIS in the Middle East — but if those same terrorists came across into the Western Hemisphere, they could be untouchable and free to kill as many Americans as they want.
Democrats are not putting forward an authorized use of military force, telling the president how to combat any of these issues. Democrats are putting forward a resolution to say the president can’t do anything about MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and every other cartel.
That is giving aid and comfort to narco-terrorists. That’s ignoring an imminent threat.
The cartels are relentless and ruthless. They have military capabilities and use them every day against the American homeland.
When a threat poses immediate danger to Americans, the Constitution gives the president the authority to act.
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