[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4303 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4303
To direct the Secretary of State to designate as foreign terrorist
organizations certain Mexican drug cartels and submit a report on the
activities the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug
cartel violence, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 29, 2012
Mr. McCaul (for himself and Mr. Mack) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of State to designate as foreign terrorist
organizations certain Mexican drug cartels and submit a report on the
activities the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug
cartel violence, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Office of Counterterrorism of the Department of
State has stated, ``FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations)
designations play a critical role in our fight against
terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for
terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the
terrorism business.''.
(2) Assistant Secretary Brownfield acknowledged in sworn
testimony on October 4, 2011, that ``[M]any of the facts on the
ground, the things that are being done by those organizations
(drug cartels), are consistent with what we would call either
terrorism or insurgency in other countries.''.
(3) On October 27, 2011, Secretary Clinton during a
Congressional Hearing stated: ``. . . we are sensitive to the
characteristics that some of these drug traffickers have
adopted that certainly resemble terrorist activities . . . I
have said it has characteristics of an insurgency . . .''.
(4) When Americans at home and abroad, including agents
assigned to protect United States borders and national
security, are targeted, threatened, and attacked by such
foreign entities, it threatens the safety and security of the
United States and its people.
(5) Mexican drug cartels maintain drug-distribution
networks, or supply drugs to distributors, in at least 230
American cities, leading the Justice Department to call Mexican
drug cartels the ``greatest organized crime threat'' to the
United States.
(6) On March 13, 2010, Lesley A. Enriquez, an employee of
the United States consulate in Mexico, and her husband, Arthur
H. Redelfs, a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail,
were targeted and killed allegedly by a drug trafficking
organization (DTO).
(7) On February 15, 2011, the Zeta DTO boldly attacked and
killed United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
Jamie Zapata, and wounded a second agent, Victor Avila.
(8) Since President Calderon took office in late 2006,
assaults on Border Patrol agents have increased from 729 in
fiscal year 2006 to 1,039 in fiscal year 2011.
(9) In Mexico, there have been over 8,000 homicides in
2011, increasing the number of deaths related to organized
crime and pushing the number of deaths to over 40,000 since
President Calderon came to office in late 2006.
(10) In early August 2010, President Calderon described the
violence perpetrated by the DTOs as ``a challenge to the state,
an attempt to replace the state''.
(11) In 2010 there were 13 political assassinations,
including several that took place around the July municipal and
state elections.
(12) In the 5 years of the Calderon government's crackdown
on the DTOs, more than 40 journalists in Mexico have been
murdered or disappeared according to the International
Committee to Protect Journalists, including at least 7
journalists in 2011.
(13) DTOs use car bombs, displays of murdered individuals,
body mutilations, beheadings, and other indiscriminate attacks
on civilians, including the August 25, 2011, Casino Royale
arson fire in Monterrey, to intimidate the public.
(14) President Calderon's response to a DTO's burning of
the Casino Royale and murder of 52 innocent civilians was, ``We
are facing true terrorists . . .''.
(15) The Mexican drug cartels meet all of the legal
criteria for designation as foreign terrorist organizations
under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1189):
(A) The organizations are foreign organizations.
(B) The organizations engage in terrorist activity
(as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B))) or
terrorism (as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the
Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988
and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(2))), or retain the
capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity
or terrorism.
(C) The terrorist activity or terrorism of the
organizations threatens the security of United States
nationals or the national security of the United
States.
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION.
The Secretary of State shall designate under section 219 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) as a foreign terrorist
organization the following:
(1) The Arellano Felix Organization.
(2) The Los Zetas Cartel.
(3) The Juarez Cartel.
(4) The Beltran Leyva Organization.
(5) La Familia Michoacana.
(6) The Sinaloa Cartel.
(7) The Gulf Cartel/New Federation.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State shall submit to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on the activities
the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug cartel
violence, including programs under the Merida Initiative, training
programs, and equipment.
(b) Definition.--In this section, the term ``Merida Initiative''
means the program announced by the United States and Mexico on October
22, 2007, to fight illicit narcotics trafficking and criminal
organizations throughout the Western Hemisphere.
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