Rep. Dan Goldman introduces bill to curb trafficking of guns from the U.S. into Mexico

Washington — Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, is introducing Tuesday a new bill that aims to strengthen border security by curbing the trafficking of guns and ammunition made in the United States across the southern border into Mexico.

Called the Disarming Cartels Act, Goldman's bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to enhance collaboration among federal immigration agencies and other partners to "identify, target, disrupt and dismantle" transnational criminal groups behind the exporting of firearms and other weapons across the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson of California and Joaquin Castro of Texas are joining Goldman in introducing the measure.

"Democrats and Republicans alike recognize the devastating threat posed by the fentanyl trade and human smuggling and trafficking, all of which are predominantly controlled by Mexican drug cartels at our southern border," Goldman, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. "But Republicans simply ignore that the source of the cartels' power is the hundreds of thousands of American-manufactured weapons of war that flow out of the United States and into the hands of the cartels. If we want to address crime across our southern border, then we must address the exportation of American guns across the border."