Senators urge Biden admin to slap sanctions, visa bans on Mexican officials to force action against cartels

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FIRST ON FOX: A group of Republican senators are calling for the Biden administration to use sanctions, visa bans and other tools against Mexican officials to spark an "unresponsive" President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador into action against cartels funneling fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, senators led by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., say that the administration’s approach to diplomacy with Mexico has downplayed the Mexican president’s "provocations" and accommodated "his insistence on fundamentally negotiating security cooperation with the United States."

"President Lopez Obrador has proven unresponsive to the administration’s policy to date," the Republicans wrote. "Despite the Executive Branch’s overtures and attempts at accommodation, he has clearly made the deliberate choice to pursue a permissive and non-confrontational policy toward the cartels, to turn a blind eye toward pervasive corruption in Mexico, and to downgrade counter-narcotics cooperation with the United States."

The letter is co-signed by Sens. James Risch, R-Idaho, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and John Barrasso, R-Wyo.

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MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - JANUARY 09: U.S. President Joe Biden and President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador poses during a welcome ceremony as part of the 2023 North American Leaders Summit at Palacio Nacional on January 09, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

The Biden administration has touted a number of cooperative actions with Mexico, including an anti-smuggling operation that led to more than 7,000 arrests in a six-month period last year. A Treasury spokesperson told Fox News Digital that it has worked to fortify the U.S. relationship with Mexico, including enhancing information sharing and joint designations of sanctions — with recent sanctions designations often done in partnership with Mexico. The department has also launched a U.S.-Mexico working group on anti-corruption, while a Biden executive order in 2021 enhanced the ability to target foreign nationals engaged internationally in drug proliferation and production.

This year the Treasury has made a number of sanctions designations, including last week when it imposed sanctions on the Hernandez Salas transnational criminal organization in coordination with the Mexican government. Among other actions this year include sanctions on the Sinaloa Cartel involved in fentanyl "super labs."

But the administration has also been critical of Mexican lack of cooperation on the matter. In March, Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers that Lopez Obrador "is helping us, but he could do much more." Blinken, meanwhile, said he agreed with the statement that Mexican cartels are in control of parts of Mexico, and that the State Department would consider declaring cartels foreign terrorist organizations.

The U.S. remains in a deep fentanyl crisis, with tens of thousands of deaths a year from the illicit narcotic — which can be fatal in small doses and is primarily produced in Mexico using Chinese precursors before it is smuggled across the U.S. border by the cartels. Over 19,000 lbs have been seized at the southern border this fiscal year, compared to 14,000 lbs in FY 2022 and 10,000 lbs in FY 2021.

Lopez Obrador, meanwhile, has made the bizarre and false claim that fentanyl is not produced in Mexico — while blaming the U.S. for its fentanyl problem.

"Here, we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl," Lopez Obrador said in March. "Why don't they [the United States] take care of their problem of social decay?"

The lawmakers say that the refusal to act by the Mexican premier is posing a growing danger to Americans.

"President Lopez Obrador’s unwillingness to act against the cartels and the breakdown in key lines of effort for counter-narcotics cooperation pose a major and growing threat to the safety and security of the American people," the lawmakers write. "In addition to controlling up to 40 percent of Mexican territory, the cartels also control the primary trafficking corridors into the United States and facilitate the passage of a record number of illegal aliens into our country and almost all of the illicit drugs coming across our border." 

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The lawmakers argue that the administration should use expanded sanctions as leverage and to be more assertive in their actions with the Mexican government.

"This includes imposing sanctions and visa bans targeting Mexican officials starting at the state and local level of government who directly support or enable the cartels, until Lopez Obrador’s Administration resumes support for joint operations, increases intelligence sharing, and escalates pressure against the cartels and their enablers in government," they say.

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"There are a significant number of potential targets for sanctions given the systemic corruption at the state and local level in Mexico, and these measures would impose serious economic costs and political pressure on the Mexican government for its refusal to take action," they say.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that while the agency does not comment on congressional correspondence, "U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has been and will continue to be a top national security priority" and highlighted cooperation with the southern neighbor under the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities aimed at detecting and seizing chemicals, equipment, and drugs while targeting criminals for prosecution.

The spokesperson also noted historic fentanyl seizures by both countries in 2022, a Mexican law passed in May to strengthen controls of chemical precursors, and a $56 million reward offer put out in April by the U.S. against 27 fentanyl traffickers involved in the supply chain as well as the sanctions by the Treasury.

"We remain committed to supporting our Mexican partners to protect and keep our communities safe from criminal networks," they said.

The GOP call for action is the latest such move from Republican lawmakers. Earlier this year, Republicans in both chambers of Congress called for greater U.S. action, including potentially taking out drug labs in Mexico.

Lopez Obrador responded by taking aim not at the cartels, but at the Republican lawmakers by threatening to meddle in U.S. elections against them.

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"Starting today we are going to start an information campaign for Mexicans who live and work in the United States and for all Hispanics to inform them of what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative by the Republicans, in addition to being irresponsible, is an offense against the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our independence, our sovereignty," he said.

"And if they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, electoral, and political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party, because it is interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt," Lopez Obrador said in June, later adding that Mexico would be insisting that "not one vote" goes to Republicans from Mexicans and Hispanics.