II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1138
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to enhance capabilities for
outbound inspections at the southern land border, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH26, 2025
Ms. H
ASSAN(for herself and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to enhance
capabilities for outbound inspections at the southern land
border, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Enhancing South-4
bound Inspections to Combat Cartels Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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•S 1138 IS
(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-2
mittees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Appropriations of 4
the Senate; 5
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 6
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 7
(C) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 8
Senate; 9
(D) the Committee on Appropriations of 10
the House of Representatives; 11
(E) the Committee on Homeland Security 12
of the House of Representatives; and 13
(F) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 14
House of Representatives. 15
(2) S
OUTHERN BORDER .—The term ‘‘Southern 16
Border’’ means the international land border be-17
tween the United States and Mexico. 18
SEC. 3. ADDITIONAL INSPECTION EQUIPMENT AND INFRA-19
STRUCTURE. 20
(a) I
MAGINGSYSTEMS.—The Commissioner of U.S. 21
Customs and Border Protection is authorized— 22
(1) to purchase up to 50 additional non-intru-23
sive imaging systems; and 24
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(2) to procure additional associated supporting 1
infrastructure. 2
(b) D
EPLOYMENT.—The systems and infrastructure 3
purchased or otherwise procured pursuant to subsection 4
(a) shall be deployed along the Southern Border for the 5
primary purpose of inspecting any persons, conveyances, 6
or modes of transportation traveling from the United 7
States to Mexico. 8
(c) A
LTERNATIVEEQUIPMENT.—The Commissioner 9
of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is authorized to 10
procure additional infrastructure or alternative inspection 11
equipment that the Commissioner deems necessary for the 12
purpose of inspecting any persons, conveyances, or modes 13
of transportation traveling from the United States to Mex-14
ico. 15
(d) S
UNSET.—Subsections (a) and (c) shall cease to 16
have force and effect beginning on the date that is 5 years 17
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 18
SEC. 4. ADDITIONAL HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGA-19
TIONS PERSONNEL FOR INVESTIGATIONS OF 20
SOUTHBOUND SMUGGLING. 21
(a) HSI S
PECIALAGENTS.—The Director of U.S. 22
Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall hire, train, 23
and assign— 24
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(1) not fewer than 100 new Homeland Security 1
Investigations special agents to primarily assist with 2
investigations involving the smuggling of currency 3
and firearms from the United States to Mexico; and 4
(2) not fewer than 100 new Homeland Security 5
Investigations special agents to assist with investiga-6
tions involving the smuggling of contraband, human 7
trafficking and smuggling (including that of chil-8
dren), drug smuggling, and unauthorized entry into 9
the United States from Mexico. 10
(b) S
UPPORTSTAFF.—The Director is authorized to 11
hire, train, and assign such additional support staff as 12
may be necessary to support the functions carried out by 13
the special agents hired pursuant to subsection (a). 14
SEC. 5. REPORT. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 16
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Home-17
land Security shall submit a report to the appropriate con-18
gressional committees that— 19
(1) identifies the resources provided, including 20
equipment, personnel, and infrastructure, and the 21
annual budget to carry out outbound and inbound 22
inspections, including, to the extent practicable, re-23
sources specifically used for inspections of any indi-24
viduals and modes of transportation— 25
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(A) from the United States to Mexico or to 1
Canada; and 2
(B) from Mexico or Canada into the 3
United States; 4
(2) describes the operational cadence of all out-5
bound and inbound inspections of individuals and 6
conveyances traveling from the United States to 7
Mexico or to Canada and from Mexico or Canada 8
into the United States, described as a percentage of 9
total encounters or as the total number of inspec-10
tions conducted; 11
(3) describes any plans that would allow for the 12
use of alternative inspection sites near a port of 13
entry; 14
(4) includes an estimate of— 15
(A) the number of vehicles and convey-16
ances that can be inspected with up to 50 addi-17
tional non-intrusive imaging systems dedicated 18
to southbound inspections; and 19
(B) the number of vehicles and convey-20
ances that can be inspected with up to 50 addi-21
tional non-intrusive imaging systems that may 22
be additionally dedicated to inbound inspections 23
along the southwest border; and 24
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(5) assesses the capability of inbound inspec-1
tions by authorities of the Government of Mexico, in 2
cooperation with United States law enforcement 3
agencies, to detect and interdict the flow of illicit 4
weapons and currency being smuggled— 5
(A) from the United States to Mexico; and 6
(B) from Mexico into the United States. 7
(b) C
LASSIFICATION.—The report submitted pursu-8
ant to subsection (a), or any part of such report, may be 9
classified or provided with other appropriate safeguards 10
to prevent public dissemination. 11
SEC. 6. MINIMUM MANDATORY SOUTHBOUND INSPECTION 12
REQUIREMENT. 13
(a) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than March 30, 2027, 14
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure, to the 15
extent practicable, that not fewer than 10 percent of all 16
conveyances and other modes of transportation traveling 17
from the United States to Mexico are inspected before 18
leaving the United States. 19
(b) A
UTHORIZEDINSPECTIONACTIVITIES.—Inspec-20
tions required under subsection (a) may include non-intru-21
sive imaging, physical inspections by officers or canine 22
units, or other means authorized by the Secretary of 23
Homeland Security. 24
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(c) REPORT ONADDITIONALINSPECTIONSCAPABILI-1
TIES.—Not later than March 30, 2028, the Secretary of 2
Homeland Security shall submit a report to the appro-3
priate congressional committees that assesses the Depart-4
ment of Homeland Security’s timeline and resource re-5
quirements for increasing inspection rates to 15 and 20 6
percent, respectively, of all conveyances and modes of 7
transportation traveling from the United States to Mexico. 8
SEC. 7. CURRENCY AND FIREARMS SEIZURES QUARTERLY 9
REPORT. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 11
date of the enactment of this Act, and every 90 days there-12
after until the date that is 4 years after such date of en-13
actment, the Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border 14
Protection shall submit a report to the appropriate con-15
gressional committees that describes the seizure of cur-16
rency, firearms, and ammunition attempted to be traf-17
ficked out of the United States. 18
(b) C
ONTENTS.—Each report submitted pursuant to 19
subsection (a) shall include, for the most recent 90-day 20
period for which such information is available— 21
(1) the total number of currency seizures that 22
occurred from outbound inspections at United States 23
ports of entry; 24
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(2) the total dollar amount associated with the 1
currency seizures referred to in paragraph (1); 2
(3) the total number of firearms seized from 3
outbound inspections at United States ports of 4
entry; 5
(4) the total number of ammunition rounds 6
seized from outbound inspections at United States 7
ports of entry; and 8
(5) the total number of incidents of firearm sei-9
zures and ammunition seizures that occurred at 10
United States ports of entry. 11
Æ
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