Who Is the Cuban-American Congressman Who Wants to Cut Aid to Mexico Over Fentanyl Trafficking?

Hispanic Congressman Alex Mooney (R-WV) has proposed suspending economic aid to Mexico for what he calls its failure to cooperate in the fight against fentanyl trafficking. He introduced H.R. 3190 to suspend economic development assistance to Mexico.

"Aid should be suspended until the president certifies that Mexico is working with the United States to combat the production and trafficking of fentanyl," the congressman said.

This legislation, he said, is in response to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's "blatantly false statement" that "Here we are not producing fentanyl and we are not consuming fentanyl. Why don't they [the United States] take care of their problem of social decay?"

Mooney, a philosopher of Cuban descent and a Trump supporter, supports hardline sectors of U.S. politics, which emphasize interdiction strategies over suppression of consumption in the drug-trafficking problem. A member of the Tea Party, he also opposes to Obamacare.

Lastly, the fentanyl epidemic has generated intense controversy in the United States as lurid news reports emerge, raising alarms about a public health problem that has reached national security proportions.

Videos of victims of this powerful drug are circulating on social networks, looking like real-life zombies wandering the streets of states such as Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon.

The debate, also, has become more politicized as the electoral environment has heated up. First, it was associated with China, as candidates for public office advocated suspending trade with the Asian giant. Now it is associated with immigration because of the expectations it raises in the American public.

Mooney is running to unseat the incumbent senator from his home state of West Virginia, Judge Joe Manchin, although polls show his chances are slim.

According to Mooney, the DEA said in December that "most of the fentanyl being trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels is being mass-produced in clandestine factories in Mexico using chemicals largely sourced from China.

Mooney said 14,000 pounds of the drug were seized at the southern border last fiscal year and more than 11,000 pounds so far, this fiscal year. More than 70,000 deaths have been attributed to fentanyl in the U.S. in 2021.

"Mexico should not be rewarded with economic aid when they are failing to help stop the production of fentanyl that has killed thousands of West Virginians," the lawmaker added.

Cuban-born Rep. Mooney is now using the big stick against a U.S. partner government, but he has previously used it against other U.S. states. One of his targets has been the state of New Mexico because of Governor Michelle Grisham's attempt to suspend concealed and open carry permits.

He recently introduced H.R. 5767, the No Gun Rights Infringement Sham Act, or No GRISHAM Act, to prohibit states or local governments that suspend concealed or open carry permits from receiving any federal financial assistance.

This was in response to New Mexico's new governor, Lujan Grisham, who issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public throughout Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County for at least 30 days, declaring a preceding spike in violence an emergency.