Ted Cruz Highlights How El Chapo Can Pay for Border Wall in New Video

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz released a video showing how the president's proposed barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border could get funded by a notorious Mexican drug lord and without any American tax dollars.

Over the weekend, the federal government zoomed past the three-week mark of its partial shutdown because of a congressional stalemate over funding for President Donald Trump's wish for a border wall. Meanwhile, Cruz proposed the El Chapo Act, which would use federally seized money from the drug lord El Chapo.

"What the El Chapo Act does is real simple," Cruz said. "It takes the money, the billions that El Chapo made crossing the border illegally, and it takes that $14 billion and uses it to pay for the wall."

Currently, Trump's proposal includes $5.7 billion to build a border wall.

Ted Cruz Wants EL CHAPO to Pay for the Border Wall

The El Chapo Act would take funds seized from El Chapo when he was arrested and use them to pay for Trump's border wall. Ted Cruz lays it out step by step.What do you think, should we America try to get El Chapo to pay for the border wall? Let us know in the comments below!

Posted by American Voices on Saturday, January 12, 2019

The video includes cartoon-like sounds and graphics while the senator sits at a desk, sometimes pretending to draw images on the screen while he talks.

Cruz also discusses border security in the video, a hot-button issue in Texas. Of the 2,000 miles of border the United States shares with Mexico, the state of Texas has roughly 1,200 miles of that border.

"We right now have an incredible flow of human traffickers, narcotics traffickers coming across the border and it endangers our national security and it endangers people's lives," Cruz said. "And how do you stop it? Well, the most natural thing to do, is we need to build a wall. We need a barrier that stops the traffickers in their path."

The senator said Democrats have been so opposed to the wall "that they're willing to shut the government down." He said the top complaint from Democrats is "we don't have the money to spend on the wall."

Cruz then said the Democrats never had problems spending money on anything in the past.

"It's the first time in history Democrats ever said we didn't have the money to spend," Cruz said. "They say in particular, 'We don't have the money to build a wall.' Well, I thought about that and tried to say alright, is there a solution? Is there a way to do it?"

Cruz then explained his proposed act wouldn't cost America "one penny," and he said it calls for "Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Protect Order Act." The acronym spells El Chapo Act.

He explained that all of the money criminally forfeited from El Chapo and other drug dealers to pay for the wall. Cruz said he saw a report that claimed El Chapo's net worth from all his assets was $14 billion.

"At the same time I saw articles that said the cost to build a wall along the entire border between $14 [billion] to $20 billion," Cruz said. "There's a natural and elegant symmetry there."

Before ending his quick pitch, Cruz said the wall would help secure the border and that Democrats still wouldn't budge.

"This is common sense legislation but I'm going to make a prediction right now," Cruz said. "The Democrats aren't even willing to spend El Chapo's money to build the wall. Because, politically, they don't want to secure the border."

El Chapo is the nickname of suspected Mexican drug lord Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, who's the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. El Chapo is currently in a highly publicized trial in New York.

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