ENROLLED
       2024 Legislature                                         SM 1020
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                                             20241020er
    1  
    2         A memorial to the United States Department of State
    3         urging the United States Secretary of State to
    4         designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist
    5         Organizations.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, the land and maritime borders of the United States
    8  present unique challenges and threats to the national security
    9  of the country, and
   10         WHEREAS, drug cartels engage in illicit activities,
   11  including human smuggling, human trafficking, weapons
   12  trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling, extortion, and
   13  kidnapping, which activities have breached the borders of the
   14  United States, and
   15         WHEREAS, as an example of the heinous activities of the
   16  drug cartels, in March 2023, south of the Texas border, one drug
   17  cartel claimed responsibility for the armed abduction and
   18  killing of American citizens who were traveling in Mexico, and
   19         WHEREAS, drug cartels have been responsible for the export
   20  and distribution to the United States of wholesale amounts of
   21  fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and other illicit
   22  substances, which has caused tens of thousands of drug-related
   23  overdoses and deaths in this country, and
   24         WHEREAS, during federal fiscal year 2023, United States
   25  Customs and Border Protection seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl
   26  and millions of fentanyl pills, enough to kill every American
   27  several times over, and this amount represents a mere 10 to 15
   28  percent of the fentanyl actually sent across the border into the
   29  United States each year, and
   30         WHEREAS, drug cartels engage in the practice of human
   31  smuggling, which poses a substantial threat to the United States
   32  by creating conduits that allow contraband and persons seeking
   33  to harm the United States to clandestinely enter this country,
   34  and
   35         WHEREAS, during federal fiscal year 2023, United States
   36  Customs and Border Protection encountered 172 individuals on the
   37  terrorist watchlist, nearly double the previous year and more
   38  than the past 6 years combined, and
   39         WHEREAS, Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act
   40  authorizes the United States Secretary of State, in consultation
   41  with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, to
   42  designate an organization as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
   43  when certain criteria are met, and
   44         WHEREAS, drug cartels meet the criteria to be designated as
   45  Foreign Terrorist Organizations, given they are foreign in
   46  nature, engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage
   47  in terrorism, and threaten the security, foreign relations, and
   48  the economic interests of the United States, NOW, THEREFORE,
   49  
   50  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   51  
   52         That the Florida Legislature respectfully urges the United
   53  States Secretary of State to designate drug cartels as Foreign
   54  Terrorist Organizations so that appropriate means may be
   55  initiated to mitigate and, eventually, eliminate their
   56  operations.
   57         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
   58  copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
   59  the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the
   60  United States House of Representatives, the United States
   61  Secretary of State, and each member of the Florida delegation to
   62  the United States Congress.