Troy Downing Asks Tribal Leader How Designation Of Cartels As FTOs Helps Tribal Security

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Troy Downing asked Crow politician, Frank White Clay, about the designation of cartels as Foreign Terror Organizations.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to yield to the gentleman from Montana, Mr. Riddell, for his five minutes.

00:04Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for once again allowing me to wave in on this committee.

00:10And thank you for the witnesses for being here. I appreciate it.

00:13You know, the threat posed by international cartels to tribal communities is significant and growing.

00:20According to the DEA, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. exceeded 112,223 with synthetic opioids like fentanyl,

00:30being the primary driver. And Montana is not immune.

00:34The Montana Department of Justice reports a 1,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures in the state since 2019.

00:42And on many reservations, law enforcement is stretched thin.

00:46Cartels take advantage of these gaps in fuel addiction, violence, human trafficking,

00:52and Native communities who already experience violent crime at a rate over twice the national average

00:58are affected more than most.

01:01So recent federal actions have made a difference, but the scale of the problem demands urgent, sustained attention.

01:07I welcome all of your insights and recommendations for ensuring the tribal communities have the resources

01:13and the support they need to push back against these criminal threats.

01:17I'm going to start with Chairman Whiteclay.

01:20Given the challenges that your community has faced with cartels moving into tribal land,

01:26how can new legal authorities, like the recent designation of cartels as a foreign terrorist organization,

01:32help your tribe protect itself?

01:36Thank you, Congressman.

01:38It's good to see you.

01:39Yeah, it opens up a whole new toolbox for us to be able to utilize those designations.

01:47And like we said, we've had to come up with creative ways to combat the cartels,

01:52and I appreciate your support on that with the Montana Air National Guard to be able to patrol on the reservation

01:59and do the trainings there.

02:02Like we said, with the new designations, it opens up more tools for us

02:07and leads to more prosecutions and more arrests because then they have that designation

02:13where they don't have safe havens.

02:16And that's what reservations primarily are, are safe havens because of the jurisdictional quagmire that's there

02:23and leading to Chairman Hilaire's process of having tribes have their own U.S. attorney

02:31to be able to prosecute because we don't have the jurisdiction to prosecute

02:35once we utilize these tools in there, we need that next step there.

02:40But with the Trump administration putting these designations out,

02:46it greatly increases the tribe's toolbox to be able to utilize and find ways to curb the cartel tide.

02:55Thank you very much.

02:56I'm going to move to you, Chief.

02:58Your testimony highlights that just seven officers are responsible for patrolling an area the size of Rhode Island.

03:05With high unemployment, limited economic opportunity, recruiting and retaining officers is a challenge

03:10while cartels continue to prey on local youth.

03:14So what would you recommend as the most effective federal support to break this cycle?

03:19Well, Mr. Downing, increase the numbers of boots on the ground in all of Indian country.

03:28This administration, so far, is off to a great start.

03:32You look at the last four years, it's been insane.

03:36Everything was just flooded.

03:39With methamphetamine and fentanyl comes this huge increase in violent crime and human trafficking.

03:44This administration's focus on, it's like taking the gloves off.

03:50There's more focus at the U.S. attorney level, at the investigative level for the FBI and the DEA.

03:58Everybody's focused on illegal immigrants, drug trafficking, and transnational cartels.

04:06In the interest of time, I'll move to you, Ms. Zinn.

04:09From your extensive experience, what have you seen work best when it comes to interagency partnerships

04:17or legislative tools to disrupt cartel networks in rural Indian country?

04:22It has to be a team effort.

04:24All boots on the ground.

04:26BIA, HSI, DEA, FBI.

04:29Everyone has to do a full court press.

04:32On top of that, though, we have to have, the other side of the piece, you have to have education.

04:35And we need to also start bringing the whole team together, building relationships with the tribal community in order to combat this.

04:46Law enforcement can fix the reservations from the outside in.

04:50The Native American community can help fix them with the inside out.

04:54Are there gaps in resources or policies that you would urge Congress to address right away?

04:59Absolutely.

05:00I mean, looking at the funding for BIA is definitely one of them.

05:03Also, with the safe trails, that's just now being developed.

05:11We need to hyper-focus on those, get these agents into these task force groups.

05:18But we need to bring outside help into, for example, Montana.

05:22Because if you're pulling agents from the different offices in Montana, there's going to be a huge operation gap.

05:29So you've got to bring more resources, more agents to the communities that impact the reservations.

05:36Unfortunately, I've run out of time.

05:37I really appreciate all of your input.

05:39And on that, Mr. Chair, I yield.

05:41Thank you very much.

05:52GGG.

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