Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), James Lankford (R-OK), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), to re-introduce the "Combating Cartels on Social Media Act."
According to a release from Senator Hagerty's office, the bipartisan legislation to help secure the southern border by cracking down on cartels recruiting teenagers through social media platforms.
“More than 100,000 Americans are currently dying annually of drug overdoses—many of which result from cartels exploiting the crisis at our southern border to smuggle fentanyl into the U.S,” said Senator Hagerty. “To facilitate this drug trafficking, these cartels go so far as to use social media platforms to recruit American teenagers to transport migrants and drugs from the border, endangering our communities. I’m pleased to work with my colleagues in taking this critical step to stop the exploitation of American social media platforms to destroy American lives.”
According to the Hagerty's press release, the bill:
- Establishes and implements a national strategy to combat illicit recruitment activity by transnational criminal organizations on social media and other online platforms to fight back against cartels using online platforms to recruit Americans for smuggling operations along the Southwest border.
- Enhances cooperation between government agencies and private sector platforms
- Help laws enforcement hold cartels accountable while also giving communities the tools they need to engage with and educate at-risk youth who are targeted by the cartels.
- Requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to analyze cartels’ illicit usage of social media and establishes a portal for technology companies to report cartel recruitment efforts in the U.S. to DHS and state and local partners.
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