Congressman Bob Good (VA-05) introduced the Every Town a Border Town Act, which would categorize MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
“The Biden Administration’s anti-American immigration policies have failed to prioritize the safety and security of the American people, favored illegal aliens, and created an out-of-control border crisis. This President’s open border policies have allowed MS-13 to infiltrate cities around the United States infecting American communities with violence and drugs,” said Rep. Good (VA-05).
The impact of illegal aliens evading the Border Patrol affects every state and city in America. In February, an MS-13 gang member was convicted of murdering a Lynchburg, Virginia teenager over 1,500 miles from the Southern Border. In Fiscal Year 2021, Customs and Border Protection (CPB) seized 913,326 pounds of illegal drugs at the border that were destined for communities across America, and CBP has already seized 234,513 pounds since January 2022. Even with successful interdiction efforts, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have confirmed that transnational criminal organizations like MS-13 are making billions of dollars in profit from smuggling humans, drugs, and other illegal contraband across the Southern Border. According to CBP, traffickers made $411.5 million in February 2021 alone.
Rep. Good continued, “We must enhance the safety of the American people by providing federal law enforcement with all the tools they need to stop these criminal gangs from terrorizing us and effectively making every town a border town.”
As a Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), MS-13 activities would fall under the category of economic crimes that seek monetary gain. As a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), the federal government would have a broader range of options to punish not only economic crimes committed, but also the physical violence perpetrated by MS-13 gang members on Americans.
CO-SPONSORS (15): Budd (R-NC), Gosar (R-AZ), Perry (R-PA), Miller (R-IL), Gohmert (R-TX), Gaetz (R-FL), Cawthorn (R-NC), Babin (R-TX), Weber (R-TX), Duncan (R-SC), Davis (R-IL), Boebert (R-CO), Garbarino (R-NY), Bishop (R-NC), and Norman (R-SC).
