[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3274-S3275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 704--EXPRESSING CONCERN ABOUT ECONOMIC AND SECURITY 
CONDITIONS IN MEXICO AND REAFFIRMING THE INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES 
IN MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONS WITH MEXICO BASED ON SHARED INTERESTS 
ON SECURITY, ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

  Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Hagerty, Mr. 
Cassidy, and Mr. Barrasso) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 704

       Whereas December 12, 2022, marks the 200th anniversary of 
     the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United 
     States and Mexico;
       Whereas, over the course of 200 years, the Governments and 
     people of the United States and Mexico have developed deep 
     cultural, economic, and diplomatic relations that have been 
     instrumental in creating prosperity in both countries and 
     throughout the hemisphere;
       Whereas, according to the United States Trade 
     Representative and the Department of Commerce, United States 
     goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated 
     $677,300,000,000 in 2019, and United States exports of goods 
     and services to Mexico supported an estimated 1,200,000 jobs 
     in 2015;
       Whereas, according to the United States Bureau of Economic 
     Analysis, the United States is Mexico's top source of foreign 
     direct investment in 2019 with $100,900,000,000, or 39.1 
     percent of all inflows (stock) to Mexico, according to 
     Mexico's Secretariat of Economy;
       Whereas the United States exports roughly $20,000,000,000 
     in agricultural products to Mexico annually, nearly 
     $6,000,000,000 of which are biotech crops and derived 
     products;
       Whereas the government of President Lopez Obrador has 
     pursued major legal and regulatory measures that pose 
     significant risks and uncertainty to cross-border trade, 
     including denying 14 biotechnology applications since May 
     2018, front-of-packing labeling requirements imposed in 
     November 2020, unilateral certification requirements on all 
     United States organic exports to Mexico imposed in December 
     2020, the December 31, 2020, Presidential Decree to phase out 
     the use of glyphosate and genetically modified corn for human 
     consumption, the February 2021 Electricity Industry Law, and 
     the May 2021 Hydrocarbons Law;
       Whereas the government of President Lopez Obrador has 
     suspended import permits for more than 80 energy companies, 
     has ended permits for energy import facilities, which puts 
     United States investment at risk, and is advancing a 
     constitutional reform bill that would dissolve the power 
     market in Mexico, eliminate independent regulators, and 
     cancel contracts and permits granted to private companies;
       Whereas arbitrary and punitive actions against United 
     States businesses operating in Mexico by the government of 
     President Lopez Obrador, such as the recent shutdown of a 
     limestone quarry owned by a United States company that is a 
     critical component of the construction aggregates supply 
     chain

[[Page S3275]]

     for the southeast United States, are damaging the economic 
     relationship between the United States and Mexico, disrupting 
     North American supply chains, and threatening to undermine 
     the confidence of United States businesses in Mexico as a 
     viable and predictable marketplace and destination for 
     investment;
       Whereas United States law enforcement encountered over 
     1,700,000 migrants attempting to enter the United States 
     illegally through the southern border with Mexico in 2021, 
     and have encountered over 1,500,000 in the first months of 
     2022, reaching an all-time high of 239,416 encounters in May 
     2022;
       Whereas United States law enforcement is seeing increasing 
     numbers of criminals trying to enter the United States 
     illegally, arresting nearly 6,000 in the first few months of 
     2022, compared to 10,763 in 2021 and 2,438 in 2020;
       Whereas, in May 2022, Secretary of Homeland Security 
     Alejandro Mayorkas declared with regards to encounters of 
     illegal immigrants at the United States southern border, 
     ``We're seeing about a seven-day average of over 7,500 
     people, so we have not seen a significant decrease in the 
     flows.'';
       Whereas U.S. Customs and Border Protection operational 
     statistics showed fentanyl seizures at the United States 
     southern border increased 56 percent in March 2022 compared 
     to March 2021, with over a 300 percent increase from March 
     2020;
       Whereas U.S. Customs and Border Protection noted a 1,066-
     percent increase in fentanyl seizures at 8 South Texas ports 
     of entry during Fiscal Year 2021, and Texas law enforcement 
     seized enough fentanyl to comprise over 36,200,000 lethal 
     doses during the same time period;
       Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
     (CDC) reported a record of 106,000 overdose deaths in the 
     United States, with more than 70,000 of those attributed to 
     synthetic opioids, a substantial amount of which are 
     illicitly produced in Mexico using precursor chemicals 
     imported from the People's Republic of China and mixed or 
     reshipped by Mexican drug cartels;
       Whereas reports from the United States Northern Command 
     indicate that Mexican cartels now control 30 to 35 percent of 
     Mexican territory, with Mexico's midterm elections in June 
     2021 being the most violent on record driven by cartel 
     violence and attempts to thwart the democratic process;
       Whereas more than 80 politicians were killed prior to the 
     June 2021 midterm elections in Mexico, with the Mexican 
     cartels claiming responsibility for the killings of at least 
     35 candidates, according to several reports;
       Whereas, according to the Initiative on Nonstate Armed 
     Actors of the Brookings Institution, Mexico registered almost 
     35,000 murders in 2021 near an all-time high, representing 27 
     murders per 100,000 and primarily attributable to ties 
     related to transnational criminal organizations, while the 
     effective prosecution rate for homicides remains around 2 
     percent;
       Whereas, according to the Initiative on Nonstate Armed 
     Actors, the rivalry between the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel 
     Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) has violently spread to 
     Colombia, one of the United States' closest allies in the 
     Western Hemisphere, with CJNG deploying drone-mounted bombs 
     to seize territory and Sinaloa taking over both the legal and 
     illegal economies of the territories in dispute;
       Whereas, in 2021, the government of President Obrador 
     disbanded a select Mexican anti-narcotics unit that, for a 
     quarter of a century, worked hand-in-hand with the United 
     States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle 
     organized crime;
       Whereas President Obrador has spearheaded legal and 
     regulatory measures to reduce or eliminate the independence 
     of Mexican autonomous institutions and regulators, including 
     the Federal Economic Competition Commission, the Federal 
     Institute for Telecommunications, the Energy Regulatory 
     Commission, and the National Electoral Institute;
       Whereas, at a March 2022 hearing of the Committee on Armed 
     Services of the Senate, United States Northern Command 
     Commander, General Glen D. VanHerck, testified that ``the 
     largest portion of [Russian intelligence personnel] in the 
     world is in Mexico right now'' and ``they keep an eye very 
     closely on their opportunities to have influence on U.S. 
     opportunities and access'';
       Whereas Mexico voted in the United Nation's General 
     Assembly to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while 
     abstaining from suspending Russia as a permanent observer of 
     the Organization of American States and from expelling Russia 
     from the United Nations Human Rights Council;
       Whereas President Obrador has increasingly turned to the 
     People's Republic of China to finance controversial 
     infrastructure projects, including the Dos Bocas Refinery and 
     the Maya Train, while the People's Republic of China's State 
     Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) acquired Mexican 
     renewables power company Zuma Energy during a time when 
     private corporations were fleeing the sector; and
       Whereas Mexico remains one of the world's most dangerous 
     countries for journalists and media workers, including the 
     deaths of 12 journalists to date in 2021 alone: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) reaffirms the interest of the United States in mutually 
     beneficial relations with Mexico based on shared interests on 
     security, economic prosperity, and democratic values;
       (2) reaffirms support for stronger economic relations with 
     Mexico, including to strengthen the resiliency of critical 
     supply chains in North America and the Western Hemisphere in 
     general;
       (3) expresses deep concerns about the worsening investment 
     climate in Mexico, and calls on the President to take 
     meaningful actions to defend United States economic interests 
     in Mexico and uphold the integrity of the United States-
     Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA);
       (4) urges the President to address the humanitarian and 
     security crisis at the border with Mexico by--
       (A) establishing effective immigration controls in the 
     United States;
       (B) targeting United States foreign assistance efforts to 
     strengthen border security and migration management 
     capacities in the region; and
       (C) leveraging existing bilateral extradition treaties and 
     the Palermo Protocols to prosecute transnational criminal 
     actors facilitating illegal migration to the United States;
       (5) is deeply concerned about the growing sophistication 
     and territorial control of transnational criminal 
     organizations in Mexico, and reaffirms the urgent need to 
     prioritize a detailed and well-resourced plan to reduce the 
     production and trafficking of illicit narcotics in Mexico, 
     including the illicit traffic of precursor chemicals imported 
     from the People's Republic of China for the manufacture of 
     synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, and that such efforts do 
     not result in a breakdown in the rule of law or respect for 
     internationally-recognized human rights in Mexico; and
       (6) urges the Government of Mexico to meaningfully reduce 
     the threat of deadly synthetic opioids, uphold its domestic 
     and international commitments to legal, safe, and orderly 
     immigration, uphold its obligations under the USMCA, respect 
     the independence of autonomous regulatory institutions, and 
     guard against the negative influence of the People's Republic 
     of China and the Russian Federation in North America and the 
     Western Hemisphere in general.

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