United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and also to sound the alarm of an issue that should concern us all: violence.

To put things in perspective, since 2006, Mexico has lost as many people to homicide as the United States has lost in every war since Korea.

Just in the last 3 years, the number of homicides exceeded the number of soldiers lost in Korea and Vietnam combined, all while we act as if nothing is happening in our own backyard.

Negotiators worked tirelessly to get us here to today's vote, but they failed to acknowledge the single greatest threat to North American trade and prosperity: violence.

I rise today to say that we have missed an opportunity, and I cannot be silent and will not let this go.

Mexican President Lopez Obrador ran on a promise to achieve peace, end the war on drugs, and create a new civilian national guard to tackle organized crime by fighting poverty.

While I have no doubt of his good intentions, he has failed miserably. Mexico's crime rate continues to rise; the endemic mass murders, disappearances, extortions, and assaults in Mexico show no signs of slowing.

Madam Speaker, by accepting this as the status quo and staying silent, we risk standing in the way of our own economic success.

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