GAO Issues Recommendations to Assess Firearms Trafficking to Mexico

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report covering firearms smuggling from the U.S. into Mexico and issuing recommendations to better understand the problem. This report was an update of a similar report GAO issued in January 2016 on the same topic. Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested GAO update the 2016 report to address the current national security threat of weapons smuggling.

The GAO reported that 70 percent of the weapons recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing between 2014 and 2018 came from the U.S., according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) . The weapons could be used by cartels and criminal organizations in Mexico.

According to GAO’s report, not all the Mexican agencies who confiscate illegal weapons coordinate with the American agencies that do, so numbers of weapons seized may be underreported. The GAO report found that additional data and analysis of recovered weapons could enhance U.S. efforts to understand firearms sources and smuggling routes.

The GAO issued eight recommendations, including that ATF and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should collect and analyze additional information about the trafficking of U.S.-sourced firearms to Mexico. Additionally, ATF, ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Department of State should develop performance measures to determine the results of their efforts to stop weapons trafficking.

Representative Meeks said, “Firearms trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico has spiraled out of control…  We in Congress must move quickly to crack down on the illegal trafficking of American-made firearms through our southern border. Neither Mexico nor the United States can solve these challenges alone, and I look forward to continue working on these issues with Sen. Durbin and our partners in Mexico.”

Senator Durbin furthered, “there is much work to be done to stop the flow of weapons and laundered drug money out of this country and into Mexico. The time to act is now.”

Both Senator Durbin and Representative Meeks agree that combatting weapons trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico should be a priority for Congress moving forward.