Former Navy SEAL Rep. Morgan Luttrell is pushing a new border security bill to ensure accountability on the number of terrorists and cartel members entering the U.S.
The proposed law will require U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to publish monthly ‘operational statistics’ reports on the number of ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ and cartel criminals coming into America.
The reports would specifically inform Congress on the activities of suspected terrorists and cartel members apprehended by CBP, Luttrell said.
Since the start of fiscal year 2021, there have been 294 illegal migrants on the terrorist watchlist apprehended at the southern border. And that doesn’t include the unknown number of those who evaded arrest.
‘Due to the Biden administration’s failed policies, dangerous cartels are controlling our borders and profiting from extensive human and drug trafficking,’ Luttrell, R-Texas, exclusively told DailyMail.com.
‘Combatting these deadly cartels starts with knowing exactly who is exploiting our border and coming into our communities.’
The bill’s unveiling comes just hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to the Capitol to deliver his State of the Union address.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, served as a Navy SEAL before joining Congress
He has introduced multiple border security bills this year, including legislation that would require the Department of Defense to draw up plans to ‘kill or capture’ cartel members
Joe Biden is expected to blame Republicans for not voting on a Senate-led $118 billion bill to secure the border during his address tonight.
The CBP report would include how many migrants who appear on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database get released into the U.S. interior monthly.
It would also require CBP author reports on including ‘gotaways’ – migrants who get into the U.S. without being apprehended.
Data on individuals affiliated with cartel organizations, whether they have made attempts to enter the U.S., and whether those migrants were released into the U.S. would also be made available to Congress under this report.
Luttrell has introduced a number of bills the Congress to address cartel influence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In February he introduced a bill to enable National Guardsman to use lethal force against armed invaders.
The Defend Our Borders from Armed Invaders Act would authorize the National Guard to use lethal force against individuals with weapons crossing from Mexico into the U.S.
In the last year, there have been multiple instances of migrants crossing into the U.S. carrying weapons, with some brandishing rifles like the AR-15.
The New Generation cartel mainly operates out of the Mexican state Jalisco
Armed U.S. Border patrol agents are seen on the U.S. side of the border wall
A people smuggler was filmed by a Texas Department of Safety drone near Eagle Pass
The bill allows National Guardsmen ‘to take such actions as may be necessary to repel persons attempting to enter the United States from Mexico who are carrying weapons, and for other purposes,’ according to a copy of the text shared with DailyMail.com.
Luttrell introduced another bill in February that would require the Department of Defense to create cartel ‘kill or capture’ plans.
The Jalisco Cartel Neutralization Act, introduced by Luttrell along with Sen. Tom Cotton,R-Ark., would require the Pentagon to submit plans to Congress on how to kill or capture the cartel’s top brass.
‘The Jalisco cartel, the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico and second most powerful drug cartel, must be identified and dismantled in order to safeguard the American people,’ Luttrell told DailyMail.com in a statement at the time.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has become one of Mexico’s most murderous drug smuggling rings over the past decade. The group is infamous for trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S. but also for their gruesome murders.
In August, the gang filmed the murders of five childhood friends who were beheaded for not joining the cartel. One of the young men was forced to behead his friend before he was later killed. They were all aged between 19 and 22 years old.