EL CHAPO Act: Ted Cruz pushes bill to fund border wall with drug money

Press Release

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, many politicians on the right knew that his border wall promise wasn’t going to be put aside.

Knowing that many people opposed to the wall would be against funding the wall with tax dollars, Senator Ted Cruz proposed using the seized wealth of suspected drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and other drug lords to fund the wall.

Fast forward to 2019, and with the government currently shut down due to a standoff between Trump and Democrats in Congress, Cruz reintroduces the bill. He explains his position in the following video:

In the video, he boasts that El Chapo’s drug money would pay for the wall in full, and take away any possibility of it being opposed due to it wasting tax dollars. He further hints that if Democrats refuse to pass the bill, then the issue is with having a wall itself and not spending five billion dollars of taxpayer money on it.

What do you think, if the bill passes and they are able to use El Chapo’s money to fund the wall, should they do it? Or is that money better spent elsewhere? I’m sure that some people against the wall may argue that a better use for the money would be rehab for drug addicts, reparations for victims of El Chapo’s cartel, and several other proposals.

No. And I see all the people wanting the wall aren't the people that will lose property in the deal. And it harms the eco system in regard to animals. And it will require upkeep and there is no guarantee that won't cost taxpayers.

NO NO NO NO. No wall. It's unnecessary. Shore up the protections we have now.

I thought the problem was the wall AND it's waste of money, both in building and maintenance. When does any construction project, likely outsourced to non-governmental companies, ever cost the initial bid?

Have the democrats been saying it's just a taxpayer concern? There's a lot more to it than that.

Pretty much all of this.

I believe in strong borders and regulated immigration, but I'd rather see that money go to things with some flexibility, such as more agents, better equipment, and preventative issues.

I've got friends in agriculture who voted for Trump and they say this whole thing is really messing with their livelihood because of the crackdowns and general fear of deportation, arrests, and so forth.

@mrbojangles25: The agriculture support for the GOP still throws me. There are few industries as reliant on government services and support.

Same, especially concerning my friend because he is more libertarian than anything, and works with the government, and has benefitted from the government due to being in ag.

But these people don't vote on logic, it's an emotional thing for them. Something the GOP capitalizes on.

Again, my experience is limited to my friends and their families, but it's sort of a genetic/indoctrination thing to them; voting GOP is almost a tradition. "I was raised catholic/GOP, and my sons and daughters are going to be raised catholic/GOP".

If they took ten seconds actually think about their situation, and what each party does for them, they'd vote Democrat 9/10 times.

I don't think this changes much. As pointed out before, 5-6 billions aren't much in the grand scheme of things, but the reasoning still seems very much racist.

A wall alone would impact the eco system along the border quite significant, if it blocks any rivers it will impact the climate much more as well.

Pretty much this. A border wall would do more harm than good. The issue isnt just the cost.

Instead, things like surveillance, more agents, and actually working with the interntational community to remove the need for people to come here sounds like far more feasible solutions.

Please tell me we are not actually calling it The El Chapo Act...I know that might seem like irony, but really, that's just bragging rights for drug dealing psychopaths. "Yeah man, I'm so badass, they named a political act after me! YEAH! They had to use me as motivation to build the wall cuz I'm so loco, ese!"

@mrbojangles25: ???

I'll say it again: A border wall is a sign that no one from history has learned a thing.

Hopefully this passes. I want that wall built as soon as possible.

And what from history has taught us that a wall doesn´t work?

Again and here without making the stupid assumption that a wall means a wall on the entire border and that it means 100% will be stopped. A wall can work, Israel has shown it can work and Berlin showed it worked.

Not to mention every single prison in America and in the world shows that a wall does work.

Except they have found tunnels where the walls do exist. So no they don't work. Also once again the majority of illegal entry and drugs are AT LEGAL ENTRY POINTS.

You do know that the Berlin wall was built by Communists (aka in your tongue "leftists") to prevent people from leaving the then-Soviet aligned East Berlin, right? Even then, it was hell and a dark symbol of the Cold War.

Source

Other places proven where walls don't work: Ireland, China (yes, I'm talking the Great Wall), parts of the Arizona border (tunnels as @LJS9502_basic has pointed out),