Border security

Make 'El Chapo' pay for the wall, say Republicans

More than a dozen House Republicans proposed a bill this week that would let the Trump administration use billions of dollars worth of assets seized from drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to build the southern border wall.

President Trump has been battling Democrats for weeks to secure $5.7 billion in funds to expand the border wall, a fight that has led to a government shutdown for five weeks.

But legislation from Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., would reserve up to $14 billion seized from "El Chapo" for the construction project. "El Chapo" is being tried in federal district court in Brooklyn, and Brooks said the fight with Democrats over money would become much easier if Trump had access to seized funds from the Mexican drug lord.

"The EL CHAPO Act kills two birds with one stone," Brooks said. "On the one hand, it shifts drug and blood money to border security and a border wall, thus helping to save the lives of thousands of Americans who die each year at the hands of illegal aliens or because of America’s porous southern border."