PHOENIX — Arizona U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani of the state’s 6th district proposed on Friday new legislation that would penalize those perpetrators of high-speed car chases along the southern border.
The pending bill, which currently has 21 co-sponsors, is named the “Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act” in honor of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent that lost his life in a high-speed chase in 2022. It states that “inadmissible migrants, cartel members, human smugglers and other bad actors” who engage in such behavior will be charged with a federal crime, according to a press release. If the car chase were to end in someone’s death, an individual would earn a life sentence.
“Every day, communities across my district experience high-speed car chases that endanger the lives of residents and frontline law enforcement officers and agents,” Ciscomani said in the press release.“Far too often, these chases end in tragedy, as it did for Agent Raul Gonzalez and countless others. My legislation, fittingly named after Agent Gonzalez, would impose federal penalties on human smugglers and other bad actors that are involved in high-speech chases with federal and local law enforcement. We must send a clear message to anyone seeking to harm our communities that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”…