Cruz: ‘Only Fitting’ Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Pays for Border Wall

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is once again proposing Mexican drug lords be forced to pay for President Trump’s border wall.

Cruz told TMZ in an interview posted Thursday that since drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been sentenced to life in prison, his $12.6 billion should be used to fund the wall on the southern border.

“I think the next step is to criminally forfeit his entire global criminal enterprise. It’s worth billions, and we should use every penny of that money to build the wall and secure the border. It’s why I introduced legislation, the El Chapo Act, to use that money to build the wall,” Cruz said.

He continued:

He ran a global, criminal cartel, and the department of justice has estimated he has an excess of twelve billion dollars. Now, finding those assets, getting those assets, won’t be easy, but we should and the Department of Justice will do its very best to do that, but we ought to use that money. It’s only fitting. He made that money trafficking narcotics illegally into this country. It’s only fitting that that money goes to secure the border and stop other traffickers like he was.

TMZ also asked Cruz whether or not President Trump was on board with his plan.

“I’ve talked with him directly and he’s enthusiastic about the idea,” Cruz said.

In February, the senator urged his colleagues to pass the El Chapo Act to secure funding for the proposed border wall through the “illegally obtained profits resulting from any criminal drug trafficking enterprise” led by El Chapo, the bill reads.

The bill also says that these funds “shall be reserved for security measures along the border between the United States and Mexico, including the completion of a wall along such border, for the purpose of stemming the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States and furthering the security of the United States.”

However, El Chapo’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, mocked the idea of making his client pay for the border wall, calling it “ludicrous,” Breitbart News reported.

“Sen. Cruz surely knows that the government has seized none — not a penny — of Mr. Guzman’s assets so getting him to pay for the wall is ludicrous. There’s a better chance of Mr. Cruz paying for the wall,” Lichtman said.

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