[Senate Report 118-123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                  Calendar No. 267

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session  }                                           { 118-123

======================================================================

             COMBATING CARTELS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ACT OF 2023

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              TO ACCOMPANY

                                 S. 61

            TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY TO
             IMPLEMENT A STRATEGY TO COMBAT THE EFFORTS OF
            TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS TO RECRUIT
           INDIVIDUALS IN THE UNITED STATES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
             PLATFORMS AND OTHER ONLINE SERVICES AND ASSESS
              THEIR USE OF SUCH PLATFORMS AND SERVICES FOR
               ILLICIT ACTIVITIES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


               December 11, 2023.--Ordered to be printed
               
                                __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
                            WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     
              
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
LAPHONZA R. BUTLER, California       ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
         Christopher J. Mulkins, Director of Homeland Security
             Moran Banai, Senior Professional Staff Member
           William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
              Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
          Kendal B. Tigner, Minority Professional Staff Member
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     

                                                  Calendar No. 267

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session  }                                           { 118-123

======================================================================
 
             COMBATING CARTELS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ACT OF 2023

                                _______
                                

               December 11, 2023.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                          [To accompany S. 61]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 61) to require the 
Secretary of Homeland Security to implement a strategy to 
combat the efforts of transnational criminal organizations to 
recruit individuals in the United States via social media 
platforms and other online services and assess their use of 
such platforms and services for illicit activities, and for 
other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably 
thereon with an amendment, in the nature of a substitute, and 
recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................3
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............4
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................6
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................6
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............7

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    S. 61, the Combatting Cartels on Social Media Act of 2023, 
directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement 
a strategy to combat the efforts of transnational criminal 
organizations (TCOs) to recruit individuals in the United 
States to participate in illicit activities via social media 
platforms and other online services. Specifically, the bill 
directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit to 
congressional committees an assessment describing TCOs' use of 
social media to recruit minors and support illicit activities, 
and existing governmental and law enforcement efforts to 
counter TCOs. The Secretary must also develop and implement a 
strategy to address recruitment on social media by TCOs, 
including proposals to improve cooperation and coordination 
across foreign, federal, state, tribal and local government 
agencies; recommendations to centralize information about TCOs 
use of social media; and activities to facilitate increased 
intelligence analysis for law enforcement purposes.

              II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    Mexican TCOs, commonly referred to as drug cartels or 
cartels, pose the greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S. 
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) annual 
National Drug Threat Assessment.\1\ These TCOs control the 
market and movement of a wide range of illicit drugs destined 
for the United States, and they regularly participate in human 
smuggling and arms trafficking. According to state and local 
officials near the border, the cartels have recently used 
social media to recruit children in support of their illicit 
activities. For example, in April 2023, this Committee's 
Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management 
held a hearing in which the mayor of Sierra Vista, Arizona, a 
city near the border with Mexico, testified that cartels were 
recruiting young people to travel south to the border to pick 
up migrants, and transport them north in exchange for money.\2\ 
The mayor explained that the cartels encourage the drivers, who 
are often teenagers, to drive recklessly through the city to 
discourage pursuits, and that they pose a very real danger to 
residents and visitors.\3\ Arizona State Troopers have 
similarly reported an increasing trend of cartels using social 
media to recruit youth for smuggling operations, and noted that 
the actions endanger the youth involved, the smuggling victims, 
and local communities.\4\ Further, Cochise County Sherriff Mark 
Daniels has told reporters that this type of recruitment is 
common.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug 
Trafficking Organizations (R41576)(June 7, 2022).
    \2\Senate Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border 
Management, Hearing on Examining the Effects of Increased Migration on 
Communities Along the Southern Border, 118th Cong. (Apr. 26, 2023)(S. 
Hrg. 118-XX).
    \3\Id.
    \4\Arizona Department of Public Safety, ALERT: CARTELS RECRUITING 
YOUTH FOR HUMAN SMUGGLING (June 16, 2023).
    \5\Cartels using social media to recruit teens for drug smuggling 
and human trafficking, 12NEWS KPNX-TV Phoenix (June 21, 2023) 
(www.12news.com/article/news/local/cartels-are-
recruiting-teens-for-human-and-drug-smuggling/75-39b0cab6-a1a4-44cd-
9e6a-d9fdff7890b7).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Social media provides the TCOs access to a wide range of 
potential recruits. According to the Pew Research Center, more 
than 70 percent of Americans use social media, and 95 percent 
of U.S. teens use online platforms.\6\ In addition to Arizona, 
officials have seen cartels use social media to support their 
smuggling operations in other states. For example, the El Paso 
Division of the DEA, which covers West Texas and New Mexico, 
reported the cartels are using social media applications--like 
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat--to coordinate 
logistics.\7\ Additionally, a Homeland Security Investigations 
agent reported that young kids--including first year drivers 
and some without a driver's license--in Dallas, San Antonio, 
and Austin have been recruited on social media to smuggle 
migrants across the southwest border.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\Pew Research Center, Social Media Use in 2021 (Apr. 7, 2021) 
(www.pewresearch.org/
internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/); Teens, Social Media and 
Technology 2022 (Aug. 10, 2022) (www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/
10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/)
    \7\Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Operation Last Mile Tracks 
Down Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartel Associates Operating within the United 
States (May 8, 2023).
    \8\Images reveal social media recruitment tactics of suspected 
human smugglers, ABC News (Dec. 23, 2022) (abcnews.go.com/US/images-
reveal-social-media-recruitment-tactics-suspected-human/
story?id=95672672).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    S. 61 is intended to specifically address DHS's response to 
this dangerous trend by requiring DHS to assess how the cartels 
are using social media to recruit individuals under the age of 
18, as well as federal government efforts to counter this 
recruitment. To ensure that this approach is holistic, the bill 
directs DHS to collaborate with other federal agencies, 
including the Departments of Health and Human Services and 
Education, as well as governmental and non-governmental 
representatives of border communities and experts in civil 
rights and civil liberties, online privacy, humanitarian 
assistance for migrants, and youth outreach and rehabilitation, 
in the production of a ``National Strategy to Combat Illicit 
Recruitment Activity by Transnational Criminal Organizations on 
Social Media and Online Platforms.''
    The platforms that will be covered under the bill include 
not only social media platforms but also mobile or desktop 
services with direct or group messaging capabilities that are 
used by TCOs for recruitment purposes if they are not solely 
text messaging applications; as well as digital platforms with 
real-time interactive communications between multiple 
individuals, including multi-player gaming services and 
immersive technologies.
    Considering the wide usage of social media, the bill 
includes important language focusing the DHS assessment and 
strategy on TCOs who seek to recruit minors for the cartels' 
activities rather than the minors themselves or any other 
individuals. To ensure that DHS only targets TCOs, S. 61 
requires that the strategy include a detailed description of 
the measures used to ensure privacy rights, civil rights, and 
civil liberties protections, especially protections for minors 
and constitutionally protected activities. The strategy must 
also ensure that law enforcement and intelligence activities 
that focus on TCO recruitment target the activities of the TCOs 
and not the individuals being recruited. Further, the bill 
directs the DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, 
in coordination with the DHS Privacy Office, to provide the 
appropriate congressional committees a report assessing 
measures to protect civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy 
within 2 years of the strategy's issuance.

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) introduced S. 61, the 
Combatting Cartels on Social Media Act of 2023, on January 24, 
2023, with original cosponsors Senator James Lankford (R-OK), 
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN). The 
bill was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and Senator 
Thomas Tillis (R-NC) joined as additional cosponsors on May 18, 
2023.
    The Committee considered S. 61 at a business meeting on 
June 14, 2023. At the business meeting, Senator Sinema and 
Senator Lankford offered a substitute amendment to the bill as 
well as a modification to the substitute amendment. The Sinema-
Lankford substitute amendment as modified defines ``criminal 
enterprise,'' ``illicit activities,'' and ``transnational 
criminal organization.'' The Sinema-Lankford substitute 
amendment as modified also specified that DHS's assessment 
should address the exploitation of children; struck language 
stating the strategy should include activities to facilitate 
proactive law enforcement, such as engaging individuals in an 
effort to preempt the commission of criminal offenses; required 
that DHS's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, in 
cooperation with the DHS Office of Privacy, assess the strategy 
and its implementation; and clarified that nothing in the bill 
shall be construed to expand the statutory law enforcement or 
regulatory authority of DHS. The Committee adopted the 
modification to the Sinema-Lankford substitute amendment by 
unanimous consent, with Senators Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, 
Padilla, Ossoff, Paul, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley 
present. The Sinema-Lankford substitute amendment, as modified, 
was adopted by unanimous consent with Senators Peters, Hassan, 
Sinema, Rosen, Padilla, Ossoff, Paul, Lankford, Romney, Scott, 
and Hawley present.
    Senator Paul offered an amendment to the bill directing the 
Comptroller General, instead of the DHS Secretary, to implement 
the assessment; prohibiting federal employees from coercing, 
compelling, or encouraging a social media company to censor 
speech; terminating all overt intelligence collection at DHS; 
and requiring agencies to provide records of communications 
between agency employees and social media companies even if the 
records are classified or would otherwise be protected. The 
Committee did not adopt the Paul amendment by a roll call vote 
of 2 yeas and 13 nays, with Senator Paul voting in the 
affirmative, and Senators Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, 
Ossoff, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley voting in the 
negative. Senator Marshall voted yea by proxy, and Senators 
Carper, Padilla, Blumenthal, and Johnson voted no by proxy.
    The bill, as amended by the modified Sinema-Lankford 
substitute amendment, was ordered reported favorably by roll 
call vote of 9 yeas and 1 nay, with Senators Peters, Hassan, 
Sinema, Rosen, Ossoff, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley 
voting in the affirmative, and Senator Paul voting in the 
negative. Senators Carper, Padilla, Blumenthal, Johnson and 
Marshall voted yea by proxy, for the record only.

        IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title

    This section establishes the short title of the bill as the 
``Combating Cartels on Social Media Act of 2023.''

Section 2. Definitions

    This section defines the terms ``appropriate congressional 
committees,'' ``covered operator,'' ``covered service,'' 
``criminal enterprise,'' ``department,'' ``illicit 
activities,'' ``Secretary,'' and ``transnational criminal 
organization.''

Section 3. Assessment of illicit usage

    This section states, not later than 180 days after 
enactment, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees an assessment 
describing: (1) the use of covered services by TCOs or criminal 
enterprises to recruit individuals, including individuals under 
the age of 18, to support illicit activities; (2) the use of 
covered services by TCOs to engage in illicit activities, such 
as narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, and human trafficking; 
and (3) the existing efforts of the Secretary and relevant 
government entities to address the aforementioned usage of 
covered services.

Section 4. Strategy to combat cartel recruitment on social media and 
        online platforms

    Subsection (a) states, not later than 1 year after 
enactment, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees a strategy to be known 
as the ``National Strategy to Combat Illicit Recruitment 
Activity by Transnational Criminal Organizations on Social 
Media and Online Platforms.''
    Subsection (b) establishes that the strategy's elements 
shall include, at a minimum: (1) a proposal to improve 
cooperation between the Secretary of Homeland Security and 
relevant law enforcement entities; (2) recommendations to 
implement a voluntary-reporting process on TCOs' recruitment 
efforts involving covered services; (3) a proposal to improve 
coordination between DHS and state, tribal, and local 
governments; (4) a proposal to improve coordination between DHS 
components; (5) activities to facilitate increased intelligence 
analysis for law enforcement purposes; (6) activities to foster 
international partnerships; (7) activities to increase 
engagement with youth in border communities about TCOs' 
recruitment tactics; and (8) a detailed description of measures 
to ensure law enforcement and intelligence activities focus on 
TCOs rather than individuals being recruited; and protections 
for privacy rights, civil rights, and civil liberties. This 
subsection also states that the strategy shall not include 
legislative recommendations.
    Subsection (c) requires that the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, at a minimum, consult with the heads of relevant DHS 
components--including the Under Secretary for Intelligence and 
Analysis, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement, and the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil 
Liberties--as well as interagency partners, governmental and 
non-governmental representatives of border communities, and 
subject matter experts, in drafting and implementing the 
strategy.
    Subsection (d) requires the Secretary of Homeland Security 
to commence implementation of the strategy not later than 90 
days after the strategy is submitted to Congress. It further 
requires that 180 days after the strategy is implemented, and 
semiannually for five years thereafter, the Secretary submit a 
report describing implementation of the strategy to the 
appropriate congressional committees. This report should 
address (1) the implementation of the strategy's 
recommendations; (2) the activities of government as part of 
the strategy; and (3) the threat landscape, including new 
developments. Further, this subsection requires a civil rights, 
civil liberties, and privacy assessment of the implementation 
of the strategy from the DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil 
Liberties and DHS Privacy Officer 2 years after the strategy is 
due.

Section 5. Rule of construction

    This section states that nothing in this bill shall expand 
the law enforcement or regulatory authority of DHS.

                   V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE



    S. 61 would require the Department of Homeland Security 
(DHS) to report to the Congress on the use of social media by 
transnational criminal organizations for recruitment and other 
illicit activities and on a strategy to combat those 
organizations' efforts. The bill also would require the 
department to begin implementing the strategy to combat those 
efforts within 90 days of submitting the report. Finally, S. 61 
would require the Office for Civil Rights and Privacy Office at 
DHS to assess the strategy and report to the Congress.
    Based on the costs of similar activities, CBO estimates 
that implementing S. 61 would cost $1 million over the 2024-
2028 period. Any spending would be subject to the availability 
of appropriated funds.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jeremy Crimm. 
The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy 
Director of Budget Analysis.

                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                             Director, Congressional Budget Office.

       VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    This legislation would make no change in existing law, 
within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of subparagraph 12 of 
rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, because this 
legislation would not repeal or amend any provision of current 
law.

                                  [all]