Bill targets Latin America, Caribbean gun trafficking

U.S. Reps. Albio Sires (D-NJ), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Norma Torres (D-CA), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Nanette Barragán (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) recently introduced legislation to address Latin America and Caribbean gun trafficking.

The Americas Regional Monitoring of Arms Sales (ARMAS) Act targets disrupting firearm trafficking from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean through stronger transparency, accountability, and oversight mechanisms for domestic small arms exports.

“Violence and insecurity continue to drive migration to the United States,” Sires, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration, and International Economic Policy, said. “If we fail to implement strict monitoring and take responsibility for the illicit use of American exported weapons, the result will be more of the same.”

Per Sires, the bill would enable Congress, the Biden administration, and regional partners to identify and shore up critical vulnerabilities to prevent arms from falling into the wrong hands while protecting crucial security assistance programs from corruption and abuse.

Legislation provisions include requiring the development of a comprehensive interagency strategy, led by the State and Commerce Departments, to disrupt the trafficking and diversion of firearms exported from the United States; providing congressional notification and blocking of certain small arms exports regulated by the Department of Commerce, consistent with safeguards in place when the same items were regulated by the Department of State; and requiring the submission of a report allowing Congress to understand challenges and successes of current efforts to address illegal arms trafficking and inform future strategies.