Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased the Senate version of an emergency spending bill contains $5 million he sought to help stop the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico, and $100 million to assist law enforcement agencies in tackling border-related crime.

Bingaman pointed out that illegal gun smuggling from the United States into Mexico has provided Mexican drug cartels with dangerous firearms. Last month, Bingaman introduced legislation, the Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act, to prevent gunrunning by expanding the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Gunrunner Initiative” – a successful initiative that targets gun trafficking networks.

The funding would enable ATF to hire, train and deploy additional special agents to establish at least seven more Project Gunrunner Teams in the border region to investigate individuals that traffic weapons into Mexico. The legislation would also give ATF the resources necessary to assign special agents to U.S. consulates in Mexico to assist Mexican law enforcement with arms trafficking cases.

Bingaman’s bill is pending in Congress, but upon introduction he immediately began seeking funding. He said he is very pleased the Senate is poised to set aside $5 million to make ATF personnel available in Mexico to assist Mexican authorities in tracing illegal weapons confiscated from drug cartels.

“Violence in Mexican communities near the border has reached a crisis point. The funding in this bill will help disarm the violent drug cartels that are the root of the problem,” Bingaman said.

The bill also contains $100 million to carry out the provisions of a proposal Bingaman first put forth in 2005 that would provide funding to local law enforcement agencies within 100 miles of the northern and southern international borders to hire additional personnel, purchase equipment, and/or to cover overtime and transportation costs.

“Until we adopt comprehensive immigration reform, border communities will continue to bear the brunt of problems associated with a lack of commitment to securing the border region. We should be assisting local law enforcement agencies with such problems of border-related crimes such as drug trafficking, vehicle thefts, and the destruction of ranchers’ fences,” Bingaman said.