EXCLUSIVE — House Republicans are reviving efforts to expand the U.S. Customs and Border Protection‘s maritime jurisdiction, relying on the new GOP trifecta to send a bill sponsored by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) to President Donald Trump‘s desk.
The bill, Extending Limits of U.S. Customs Waters Act, was first introduced in the last Congress by now-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The goal of the legislation is to allow CBP to catch drug smugglers off U.S. waters and prohibit human traffickers and migrants at sea, Salazar said in an exclusive interview on the bill with the Washington Examiner.
Currently, the maritime jurisdiction for CBP is 12 miles, but the bill seeks to extend that to 24 miles. This would put CBP’s jurisdiction on par with that of the U.S. Coast Guard’s, Salazar said.
“We are giving that authority to Border Patrol. That way, we can force the drug smugglers — and it’s not only drug smuggling, it’s smuggling people, arms, money, and drugs — so we push them further out,” the Florida congresswoman said. “And if they want to come and find some harbor on the coast, it’s harder for them to travel 24 versus 12.”
“If they want to run, they know we can only go up to 12 miles,” Salazar added. “But now we can chase them out to 24, so it makes it better for us and worse for them.”
Under the legislation, CBP’s Air and Marine Operation and other federal authorities will have a wider scope of authority when it comes to enforcing customs and immigration laws at sea. Proponents of the legislation argue that a wider maritime jurisdiction would increase CBP’s ability to detect and prosecute those seeking to bring illegal cargo into the United States.
The bill passed the House by a wide bipartisan margin, 402 to 6, in April last year, but it was never taken up in the Senate. Now, Salazar is leading the effort in the House, and Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) are sponsoring the legislation in the Senate.
Salazar is convinced the legislation will attract bipartisan support this Congress, as well. The six no-votes last year were all Democrats and members of the progressive-leaning “Squad.”
“Who is going to say no to this initiative to give more power to the CBP to go chase the bad guys? Of course, never understood why Mr. Schumer didn’t want to bring it up, but now we have the Republican Senate and I’m sure they’re going to be very receptive to making this pass, because this is just common sense,” Salazar said.
The rise in fentanyl in the U.S. — another top issue among voters in the 2024 election — is the “number one point of action that we need to be taking,” Salazar said, noting that the drug could be entering the country via the sea as well as the southern border.
“So this is another instrument that we’re giving to our authorities to stop drugs,” Salazar said of her legislation.
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Salazar’s bill is one of several revitalized pieces of legislation related to immigration and the border now that Republicans control Congress and the White House. The GOP campaigned heavily on stopping the influx of illegal immigration and drugs over the southern border.
In the House rules, several of the bills fast-tracked to hit the floor in the early weeks of the 119th Congress dealt with immigration — such as the Laken Riley Act and the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act.
The Washington Examiner reached out to CBP for comment.