S.Res. 97: A resolution expressing concern about economic and security conditions in Mexico and reaffirming the interest of the United States in mutually beneficial relations with Mexico based on shared interests on security, economic prosperity, and democratic values, and for other purposes.

Whereas December 12, 2022, marked the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico;

Whereas, over the course of 200 years, the Governments and people of the United States and Mexico have developed deep cultural, economic, and diplomatic relations that have been instrumental in creating prosperity in both countries and throughout the hemisphere;

Whereas, according to the United States Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce, United States goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $677,300,000,000 in 2019, and United States exports of goods and services to Mexico supported an estimated 1,200,000 jobs in 2015;

Whereas, according to the 2022 United States Department of State’s Investment Climate Statement on Mexico, the United States is Mexico’s top source of foreign direct investment with a stock of $184,900,000,000;

Whereas, in 2021, the United States exported $25,000,000,000 in agriculture products to Mexico and imported $38,700,000,000 in agriculture products from Mexico;

Whereas the government of President Lopez Obrador has pursued major legal and regulatory measures that pose significant risks and uncertainty to cross-border trade, including denying 14 biotechnology applications since May 2018, front-of-packing labeling requirements imposed in November 2020, unilateral certification requirements on all United States organic exports to Mexico imposed in December 2020, the December 31, 2020, Presidential Decree to phase out the use of glyphosate and genetically modified corn for human consumption, the February 2021 Electricity Industry Law, and the May 2021 Hydrocarbons Law;

Whereas the government of President Lopez Obrador has suspended import permits for more than 80 energy companies, has ended permits for energy import facilities, which puts United States investment at risk, and is advancing a constitutional reform bill that would dissolve the power market in Mexico, eliminate independent regulators, and cancel contracts and permits granted to private companies;

Whereas arbitrary and punitive actions against United States businesses operating in Mexico by the government of President Lopez Obrador, such as the recent shutdown of a limestone quarry owned by a United States company that is a critical component of the construction aggregates supply chain for the southeast United States, are damaging the economic relationship between the United States and Mexico, disrupting North American supply chains, and threatening to undermine the confidence of United States businesses in Mexico as a viable and predictable marketplace and destination for investment;

Whereas United States law enforcement encountered over 2,378,944 migrants attempting to enter the United States illegally through the southern border with Mexico in 2022, reaching an all-time high of 251,978 encounters in December 2022, and have encountered over 156,000 migrants in January 2023;

Whereas United States Border Patrol has documented a rise in the number of convicted criminals attempting to enter the United States illegally, including over 3,000 since October 2022, 12,028 in fiscal year 2022, 10,763 in fiscal year 2021, and 2,438 in fiscal year 2020;

Whereas U.S. Customs and Border Protection operational statistics showed fentanyl seizures at the United States southern border increased 66.86 percent in January 2023, compared to January 2022, with over a 907 percent increase from January 2020;

Whereas U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported an approximately 207 percent increase in the amount of illicit fentanyl seized at the southwest border since fiscal year 2020, and the Drug Enforcement Administration reported the seizure of 379,000,000 potentially deadly doses of fentanyl in 2022;

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a record of 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2022, with more than 71,400 (66.5 percent) of those attributed to synthetic opioids, a substantial amount of which are illicitly produced in Mexico using precursor chemicals imported from the People’s Republic of China and mixed or reshipped by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) drug cartels;

Whereas reports from the United States Northern Command indicate that Mexican cartels now control 30 to 35 percent of Mexican territory, with Mexico’s midterm elections in June 2021 being the most violent on record driven by cartel violence and attempts to thwart the democratic process;

Whereas more than 80 politicians were killed prior to the June 2021 midterm elections in Mexico, with the Mexican cartels claiming responsibility for the killings of at least 35 candidates, according to several reports;

Whereas, according to the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors of the Brookings Institution, Mexico registered almost 34,000 murders in 2022 near an all-time high, representing 27 murders per 100,000 and primarily attributable to ties related to transnational criminal organizations, while the effective prosecution rate for homicides remains around 2 percent;

Whereas, according to the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, the rivalry between the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Cartel has violently spread to Colombia, one of the United States closest allies in the Western Hemisphere, with CJNG deploying drone-mounted bombs to seize territory and Sinaloa taking over both the legal and illegal economies of the territories in dispute;

Whereas, in 2021, the government of President Obrador disbanded a select Mexican anti-narcotics unit that, for a quarter of a century, worked hand-in-hand with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle organized crime;

Whereas President Obrador has spearheaded legal and regulatory measures to reduce or eliminate the independence of Mexican autonomous institutions and regulators, including the Federal Economic Competition Commission, the Federal Institute for Telecommunications, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Electoral Institute;

Whereas, at a March 2022 hearing of the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate, United States Northern Command Commander, General Glen D. VanHerck, testified that the largest portion of [Russian intelligence personnel] in the world is in Mexico right now and they keep an eye very closely on their opportunities to have influence on U.S. opportunities and access;

Whereas Mexico voted in the United Nation’s General Assembly to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while abstaining from suspending Russia as a permanent observer of the Organization of American States and from expelling Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council;

Whereas President Obrador has increasingly turned to the People’s Republic of China to finance controversial infrastructure projects, including the Dos Bocas Refinery and the Maya Train, while the People’s Republic of China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) acquired Mexican renewables power company Zuma Energy during a time when private corporations were fleeing the sector; and

Whereas Mexico remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists and media workers, with 2022 marking the deadliest year on record with 19 deaths: Now, therefore, be it