Staff Reports
Americans are watching the slow-motion catastrophe at our border and asking for bold, practical solutions, not lectures and empty promises. Senator Mike Lee dared to say what many of us have been thinking: use every constitutional tool at our disposal to smash the cartels that flood our communities with fentanyl and bloodshed. He first floated the idea publicly in early 2025 and has since pushed the conversation into the halls of Congress and the national debate.
This isn’t some fantasy about swashbuckling sailors; the Constitution itself expressly empowers Congress to grant letters of marque and reprisal, a measure once used against pirates to protect American commerce and lives. Those historical powers were not created for show — they were practical instruments of national defense that operated under legal rules and prize courts. Bringing that concept into the modern fight against transnational criminal gangs is legally grounded and historically rooted.
On December 18, 2025 Senator Lee introduced the Cartel Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act, a bill that would allow the president, with congressional authorization, to issue letters permitting private actors to seize cartel persons and property outside U.S. borders. The proposal is targeted, limited by conditions, and specifically framed as a tool to punish those who have carried out acts of aggression against the United States. This is lawmaking, not lawlessness — a way to expand options without sending a blank check to permanent warfare or open-ended deployments.
Think about the upside: private-sector operatives, former special operators, and vetted American companies could strike cartel infrastructure and finances where they operate, reducing boots-on-the-ground risk for our servicemembers and sparing taxpayers much of the cost. A properly written prize system could be largely self-funding by depriving cartels of the plunder that keeps them roaring. That kind of innovative, results-oriented thinking is exactly what conservatives should champion as we defend our citizens from an enemy that openly targets our kids.
Of course the left-wing press and parts of the national-security establishment will howl about “vigilantism” and “chaos,” but those are predictable talking points designed to keep every new tool off the table. Senator Lee’s draft includes guardrails — presidential authorization, bonds to ensure compliance, and legal processes — to prevent abuses and preserve accountability. We should demand those safeguards while refusing to let fear of hypothetical problems paralyze us against a very real and growing threat.
This is a moment for patriots to get to work, not tuck tail and cede the field to criminals. Supporters of law and order must press Congress to consider Lee’s bill seriously, refine oversight provisions where needed, and stop treating creative constitutional tools as if they were outside the bounds of acceptable policy. The people of this country deserve leaders who will use America’s laws and history to protect them, not lecture them from a safe distance.
If Washington won’t act, voters should remember who stood up for the safety of American neighborhoods and who offered only platitudes while the drug trade devoured our children. Restoring a constitutional, regulated mechanism to go after cartel assets is bold, American, and entirely in keeping with the founders’ intent to defend the republic. It’s time to stop apologizing for protecting our citizens and start backing leaders who will actually fight.
