Senate GOP focuses on law enforcement to stop Mexican cartels, Democrats blame U.S. gun industry

Senate Democrats and Republicans are taking a widely different view of the issue of Mexican cartels' smuggling and gun violence and how to stop it – with Democrats appearing to continue to focus on the U.S. firearms industry while Republicans focus on investigative efforts and the dangers that cartel members pose to law enforcement and other Americans.

The largely disparate views were recently highlighted during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "The Thin Blue Line Protecting America from the Cartels."

"Today’s hearing focuses on the very real threat of Mexican drug cartels and the lengths law enforcement goes to defend Americans," Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassly, the committee's top Republican, said at the June hearing. 

"These are the folks who enforce the law at great personal cost. As of late, they’ve been pelted with rocks, assaulted with homemade explosives ... . And yet, they continue to hold the line against one of the greatest national security threats to America – Mexican drug cartels."

Among the three federal law enforcement officials to testify at the June 17 hearing was the Drug Enforcement Administration's Matthew Allen.

"In my 22 years-plus in the DEA ... . I’ve experienced several instances of cartels and criminal organizations surveilling our people, both in Mexico and the United States," said Allen the special agent in charge of the agency's Los Angeles Field Division. "I’ve personally lost several friends on this job – two of them, very close friends of mine. It’s a dangerous job.”

Grassley also warned about the dangers of cartel members infiltrating the United States, citing the son-in-law of Ruben Oseguera Cervantes – known as "El Mencho" and the leader of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a major drug-trafficking organization in Mexico – living in Southern California under a fake name until his arrest last year. 

Prosecutors say the son-in-law, Cristian Fernando Gutierrez Ocho, faked his own death and fled to the U.S. to avoid Mexican authorities after kidnapping two members of the Mexican Navy in 2021. He is also accused of conspiring to import thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine into the U.S.

Allen said agents working on a tip arrested him in a gated community, "just down the street from the chief of police."

Grassley also hammered away at Democrats on the committee as they appeared to zero-in on U.S. gun dealers as a major factor in cartel violence. 

"It was Democrats who threw open our southern border," he argued. 

Illegal border crossings surged during the previous Biden administration, with at least 7.2 million migrants purportedly encountered from January 2021 to January 2024.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat, said the cartels are "being armed by one country primarily – the United States." 

"Firearms dealers in this country are selling guns into Mexico to the cartels, and those guns are being used for their evil plans across the United States," he also said. “We must acknowledge the role the United States has played in arming these cartels to the teeth." 

Durbin also said the Mexican government estimated that roughly 200,000 U.S.-sourced firearms are smuggled each year into the country. 

He spoke just days after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a lawsuit by the Mexican government against U.S. gun makers could not go forward. 

The justices held in the case – Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos – that Mexico’s efforts to hold the makers responsible for drug cartel violence with U.S.-made weapons are barred by a federal law to shield the gun industry from lawsuits in U.S. courts for the misuse of guns by others.

While Durbin appeared focused on gun dealers over manufacturers, Smith & Wesson said the high court suit was "in collaboration with U.S.-based anti-Second Amendment activist groups" and "only the latest example of their strategy of attacking our company and our industry."

Attempts by Just the News to reach the National Rifle Association, widely considered the country's largest and most powerful gun lobby group, about Durbin's comments were unsuccessful.

Members of the U.S. gun industry were not among those who testified. 

About 70% of firearms recovered from crime scenes in Mexico that were submitted for tracing originated from the U.S., according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – while the direct sale of firearms by U.S. companies to Mexican cartels is illegal and considered arms trafficking.

Firearms are extremely difficult to purchase legally in Mexico. There is only one gun store in Mexico run by the Mexican military (SEDENA) in Mexico City. Many firearms banned in Mexico, such as semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, can be legally purchased in the U.S.

The majority of traced firearms recovered in Mexico came from Texas, Arizona and California, according to a 2023 Justice Department report. 

Jose Perez, the assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division, who testified at the hearing, says that in the past six months, through cartel and gang investigations, the agency has seized roughly 4,000 guns in the U.S. including 2,200 along the border.

“As we investigate more aggressively the cartels and the gangs, we will encounter illicit firearms and encounter how those firearms have landed in the hands of these criminals,” he  said.