Mexico Cross-Border Crime Accountability Act

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Bill ID: 119/hr/5980
Last Updated: November 11, 2025

Sponsored by

Rep. Shreve, Jefferson [R-IN-6]

ID: S001229

Follow the money

The bill

Mexico Cross-Border Crime Accountability Act

HR. 5980, 119th Congress.

The sponsor

Rep. Shreve, Jefferson [R-IN-6]

Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.

The money

$67,837 raised

20 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.

The alignment

85% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Department of Justice" section, p. 587-589 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

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Became Law

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1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

Another masterpiece of legislative theater, courtesy of the esteemed members of Congress. The Mexico Cross-Border Crime Accountability Act (HR 5980) is a perfect example of how politicians can take a legitimate concern – in this case, transnational crime and security cooperation with Mexico – and turn it into a bloated, bureaucratic monstrosity.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The bill's primary objective is to require the Secretary of State to submit a report outlining a strategy for US security assistance to Mexico. Wow, what a bold move! I'm sure the cartels are shaking in their boots at the prospect of a 180-day deadline for a report.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill's provisions can be summarized as follows:

* The Secretary of State must submit a report with a strategy that includes: + A plan to dismantle transnational criminal networks (good luck with that) + Increasing Mexico's military and public security capacity (because throwing more money at the problem always works) + Enhancing civilian law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts (because corruption is just a minor issue in Mexico) * The report must include a detailed summary of projects, priorities, baselines, milestones, and performance measures (yawn) * There's also a provision for a fraud risk assessment because, you know, the Department of State has a stellar track record when it comes to managing taxpayer dollars

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The usual suspects:

* The Secretary of State, who will have to waste their time compiling this report * Mexico's government, which will pretend to care about security cooperation while continuing to line its pockets with cartel money * US taxpayers, who will foot the bill for this bureaucratic exercise in futility * Lobbyists and special interest groups, who will find ways to exploit this bill for their own gain

**Potential Impact & Implications:** Let's be real – this bill is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It won't address the root causes of transnational crime or corruption in Mexico. Instead, it'll create more bureaucratic red tape and provide a false sense of security for politicians to grandstand about.

The only potential impact will be on the wallets of US taxpayers, who will fund this boondoggle, and on the egos of politicians, who will get to pretend they're doing something meaningful about border security. Meanwhile, the cartels will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

Diagnosis: This bill is suffering from a severe case of "Legislative Theater-itis," characterized by symptoms such as:

* Grandiose language with no substance * Overemphasis on bureaucratic process over actual results * Ignoring the root causes of the problem in favor of feel-good solutions

Treatment: A healthy dose of skepticism, followed by a strong shot of reality. Unfortunately, this bill will likely pass, and we'll be left to deal with the consequences of another failed policy initiative

Related Topics

Government Operations & AccountabilityFederal Budget & Appropriations
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Rep. Shreve, Jefferson [R-IN-6]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$67,837
20 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$0
Committees
$0
Individuals
$67,837

No PAC contributions found

No organization contributions found

No committee contributions found

1
SASSO, APRIL
1 transaction
$6,600
2
PONDER, JACQUELINE
1 transaction
$3,437
3
KING, CHRISTOPHER M.
1 transaction
$3,300
4
CALDWELL, JORDAN
1 transaction
$3,300
5
DOPPELT, BRIAN
1 transaction
$3,300
6
KING, KYLIE A.
1 transaction
$3,300
7
SASSO, RICK C.
1 transaction
$3,300
8
SCHUMACHER, AMY MAE
1 transaction
$3,300
9
MCALLISTER, CHRIS
1 transaction
$3,300
10
ZINK, JAMES C.
1 transaction
$3,300
11
BARRETT, WILLIAM W.
1 transaction
$3,300
12
JONES, JERRY
1 transaction
$3,300
13
BEDEL, ELAINE
1 transaction
$3,300
14
ELWOOD, MARK
1 transaction
$3,300
15
JOHNSON, RICHARD L JR.
1 transaction
$3,300
16
MARTZ, GREG
1 transaction
$3,300
17
MILLER, TADD
1 transaction
$3,300
18
PRICE, FRANCIS
1 transaction
$3,300
19
KITTLE, JEFFREY
1 transaction
$2,500
20
LECHLEITER, SARAH L.
1 transaction
$2,500

Donor Network - Rep. Shreve, Jefferson [R-IN-6]

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Individuals
Politicians

Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.

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Showing 37 nodes and 20 connections (41 secondary connections hidden)

Total contributions: $67,837

Top Donors - Rep. Shreve, Jefferson [R-IN-6]

Showing top 20 donors by contribution amount

20 Individuals

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.

Department of Justice

Strong
Vector: 68%
Pages: 587-589AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"HR 5980 aligns closely with Project 2025's DOJ focus on dismantling transnational criminal networks, securing the southwest border, and combating drug cartels, human trafficking, and related illicit activities through enhanced U.S.-Mexico cooperation and security assistance strategy."

Key themes:transnational criminal networksborder securitydrug trafficking/fentanylhuman traffickingU.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation

— 555 — Department of Justice 1. Rigorously prosecute as much interstate drug activity as possible, including simple possession of distributable quantities.46 Recent efforts to create the impression that drug possession crimes are not serious offenses has contributed to the explosion of criminal organization activities in the United States. 2. Aggressively deploy the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),47 which Congress expressly created to empower the Department of Justice to treat patterns of intrastate- level crimes, such as robbery, extortion, and murder, as federal criminal conduct for criminal organizations and networks. The next Administration can use existing tools while it works with Congress to develop new tools. l Secure the border,48 which is the key entry point for many criminal organizations and their supplies, products, and employees. Mexico— which is arguably functioning as a failed state run by drug cartels—is the main point of transit for illegal drugs produced in Central and South America, fentanyl precursors from the Chinese Communist Party–led People’s Republic of China,49 weapons, human smuggling and trafficking, and other contraband. Mexican drug cartels, including the dominant Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), are the main drivers of fentanyl production and distribution in the United States. The southwestern land border is sufficiently porous that Mexican drug cartels have operational control of large sections of the border, which facilitates easy movement of product and personnel. These cartels are also violent and not afraid to demonstrate force on both sides of the border. Their conduct represents a clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens. In addition to finalizing the southwestern land border wall, the next Administration should take a creative and aggressive approach to tackling these dangerous criminal organizations at the border. This could include use of active-duty military personnel and National Guardsmen to assist in arrest operations along the border—something that has not yet been done. A new and forceful approach to interdiction will have a ripple effect on the operations of these criminal organizations, which currently operate freely without concern for criminal prosecution, and will lay the necessary groundwork for initial prosecutions of these organizations and their leaders. It is critical that the federal government staunch the flow of drugs by preventing the far-too-easy access to the United States that now exists. — 556 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise There can be no serious dispute that the Biden Administration has opened the southwest border to whomever wants to enter and that some of those entrants are smuggling fentanyl into the country. More than 100,000 Americans died in a one-year period from opioid overdoses, and many of them died specifically from having used fentanyl.50 The federal government should treat this problem as aggressively as necessary. Enforcing the customs and immigration laws is a matter of life and death. PURSUING A NATIONAL SECURITY AGENDA AIMED AT EXTERNAL STATE AND NON-STATE ACTORS, NOT U.S. CITIZENS EXERCISING THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS The Department of Justice plays a vital role in protecting our national security, and it must not refrain from engaging in public initiatives that identify our adver- saries and educate the American people about their activities. The DOJ’s China Initiative under President Trump reflected the department’s priority of combating Chinese threats to our national security.51 Because China was accountable for approximately 80 percent of all prosecutions for economic espionage and approximately 60 percent of all thefts of trade secrets, then-At- torney General Jeff Sessions set key goals for the China Initiative that included development of an enforcement strategy concerning researchers in labs and universities who were being coopted into stealing critical U.S. technologies, iden- tification of opportunities to address supply-chain threats more effectively, and education of colleges and universities about potential threats from Chinese influ- ence efforts on campus. In February 2022, the Biden Administration terminated the department’s China Initiative largely out of a concern for poor “optics.”52 While the Biden Administra- tion correctly identified China as America’s “only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it,”53 it folded in the face of political cor- rectness and sent the message that liberal sensitivities outweighed bringing justice to threats from China. The next conservative Administration should therefore: l Restart the China Initiative. l Pursue other programs to educate the American people about the real and dangerous threats to our national security and economic security that are posed by actors across the globe, most notably China and Iran. l Ensure that it is agile enough to devote sufficient resources and attention to other emerging threats that involve federal interests

Department of Justice

Strong
Vector: 66%
Pages: 587-589AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"HR 5980 aligns strongly with Project 2025's goal of dismantling transnational criminal enterprises and securing the border, as both target Mexican drug cartels, human trafficking, and money laundering through coordinated U.S. assistance and strategy."

Key themes:transnational criminal organizationsborder securitydismantling cartelsdrug traffickinghuman trafficking

— 554 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise attorneys are consistently using the tools at their disposal in cases with violent offenders, including pursuing mandatory minimum sentences under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA).43 The department should also support legislative efforts to provide further tools, such as the Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act, which Senators Tom Cotton (R–AR), Marsha Blackburn (R–TN), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R–MS) introduced in 2021 in response to U.S. Supreme Court decisions neutering the ACCA.44 l Enforce the death penalty where appropriate and applicable. Capital punishment is a sensitive matter, as it should be, but the current crime wave makes deterrence vital at the federal, state, and local levels. However, providing this punishment without ever enforcing it provides justice neither for the victims’ families nor for the defendant. The next conservative Administration should therefore do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row. It should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children—until Congress says otherwise through legislation.45 DISMANTLING DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES Criminal organizations are as old as crime itself, but are more extensive, sophisticated, and dangerous today than at any other point in history. The Department of Justice has a key role in tackling transnational criminal orga- nizations like Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Mexican drug cartels as well as purely domestic criminal organizations like those built on the more traditional mafia crime model as part of its obligation to ensure the safety and security of the American people. The department’s primary directive under the next Administration should be to return to an unapologetic focus on dismantling these criminal organizations and incarcerating their membership. Once this reprioritization occurs, the depart- ment’s political leadership should take concrete steps to use agency reach and resources to prevent these criminal organizations from operating and surviving. Assaulting the business model of these criminal organizations—which are massive, diversified enterprises with nationwide or international operations—is essential for success. The next Administration will therefore need to: l Revitalize the DOJ’s use of the array of statutory tools that exist for dealing with the threat of criminal organizations. The most potent ones are the simplest. For example, the department should: — 555 — Department of Justice 1. Rigorously prosecute as much interstate drug activity as possible, including simple possession of distributable quantities.46 Recent efforts to create the impression that drug possession crimes are not serious offenses has contributed to the explosion of criminal organization activities in the United States. 2. Aggressively deploy the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),47 which Congress expressly created to empower the Department of Justice to treat patterns of intrastate- level crimes, such as robbery, extortion, and murder, as federal criminal conduct for criminal organizations and networks. The next Administration can use existing tools while it works with Congress to develop new tools. l Secure the border,48 which is the key entry point for many criminal organizations and their supplies, products, and employees. Mexico— which is arguably functioning as a failed state run by drug cartels—is the main point of transit for illegal drugs produced in Central and South America, fentanyl precursors from the Chinese Communist Party–led People’s Republic of China,49 weapons, human smuggling and trafficking, and other contraband. Mexican drug cartels, including the dominant Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), are the main drivers of fentanyl production and distribution in the United States. The southwestern land border is sufficiently porous that Mexican drug cartels have operational control of large sections of the border, which facilitates easy movement of product and personnel. These cartels are also violent and not afraid to demonstrate force on both sides of the border. Their conduct represents a clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens. In addition to finalizing the southwestern land border wall, the next Administration should take a creative and aggressive approach to tackling these dangerous criminal organizations at the border. This could include use of active-duty military personnel and National Guardsmen to assist in arrest operations along the border—something that has not yet been done. A new and forceful approach to interdiction will have a ripple effect on the operations of these criminal organizations, which currently operate freely without concern for criminal prosecution, and will lay the necessary groundwork for initial prosecutions of these organizations and their leaders. It is critical that the federal government staunch the flow of drugs by preventing the far-too-easy access to the United States that now exists.

Department of Homeland Security

Strong
Vector: 66%
Pages: 183-185AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"HR 5980 aligns strongly with Project 2025's DHS objectives by enhancing U.S.-Mexico cooperation to combat transnational crime, improving border security, and dismantling criminal networks—directly supporting goals like reinstating Remain in Mexico protocols and curbing mass migration through enforcement and interdiction."

Key themes:border securitytransnational crimeU.S.-Mexico cooperationimmigration enforcementdismantling criminal networks

— 151 — Department of Homeland Security l Employment authorization. Along with the legislative proposal, take regulatory action to limit the classes of aliens eligible for work authorization. Executive Orders l Pathways for border crossers 1. Direct the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Northern Triangle Countries immediately. 2. Recommence negotiations with Mexico to fully implement the Remain in Mexico Protocols. 3. Reinstate, to the extent possible, expedited pathways with full credible fear/immigration court process (PACR and HARP). 4. Prohibit the use of Notices to Report, the use of any funds for travel into the interior of the United States, and government flights or transportation for aliens. 5. Mandate that ICE use all detention space in full compliance with Section 235 of the INA, issue weekly reports on detention capacity, and provide authority for low-level temporary capacity (for example, tents) once permanent space is full. 6. Eliminate the use of ATD for border crossers except in rare cases and only with the explicit authority of the Secretary. 7. Prohibit the use of parole except in matters that are certified by the Secretary of Homeland Security as requiring action for humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons, and prohibit the use of parole in any categorical circumstance. l Enforcement 1. Restrict prosecutorial discretion to eliminate it as a “catch-all” excuse for limiting immigration enforcement. 2. Mandate the use of E-Verify for anyone doing business with the government. — 152 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 3. Designate USCIS as Intelligence Community–adjacent, ensuring that it has access to national security and law enforcement databases. 4. Rescind all memoranda limiting enforcement of immigration laws including those identifying sensitive zones. 5. End ICE’s widespread use of termination and administrative closure of cases in immigration court. l Averting or curtailing a mass migration event 1. Provide that whenever the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that an actual or anticipated mass migration of aliens en route to or arriving off the coast of the U.S. presents urgent circumstances requiring an immediate federal response, the Secretary may make, subject to the approval of the President, rules and regulations prohibiting in whole or in part the introduction of persons from such countries or places as he or she shall designate in order to avert or curtail such mass migration and for such period of time as is deemed necessary, including through the expulsion of such aliens. Such rule and regulation making shall not be subject to the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. 2. Provide that notwithstanding any other provision of law, when the Secretary makes such a determination and then promulgates, subject to the approval of the President, such rules and regulations, the Secretary shall have the authority to waive all legal requirements of Title 8 that the Secretary, in his or her sole discretion, determines are necessary to avert or curtail the mass migration. Subregulatory Matters l USCIS priorities/structural changes 1. Ensure that focus is returned to vetting, base eligibility of applicants, and fraud detection. 2. Realign the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) to ensure agencywide consistency on implementation of fraud detection and vetting policies. 3. Review and repeal any internal agency memo that is inconsistent with the priorities described in this chapter.

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About These Correlations

Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.

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