WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his recent bipartisan, bicameral congressional delegation (CODEL) to Mexico, where the members received briefings from intelligence, drug enforcement, and government officials and met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and members of his administration. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“A strong relationship with Mexico is important to our economy. But Mexico isn’t just a trading partner – it’s not just about the economics between our countries – Mexico is also a necessary and vital security partner.”

“Over the years, our security cooperation has promoted safety and security in both countries, and as the Mexican people are seeing every day, the Mexican government is unfortunately failing to meet its side of the responsibilities.”

“The government of Mexico hasn’t expressed adequate concern, in my opinion, over the cartel violence, the drug trafficking, or the migration crisis.”

“Given the severity of these challenges, there is a clear need for action, but we’ve got to proceed carefully, because while Mexico ultimately has many problems, it is our southern neighbor and our economies are interconnected.”

“We had a bipartisan congressional delegation to Mexico this weekend to learn more about the ongoing security challenges so we can figure out with our Mexican counterparts what kind of changes need to be made, and what exactly those changes would look like.”

“Between the 12 of us, Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, we have varying political views and many differences of opinion on a host of topics, but… we all agreed the ongoing crisis in Mexico is unsustainable and something needs to change.”

“We got briefings from American intelligence officials, leaders from the Drug Enforcement Administration, and others about their work in Mexico.”

“For a total of four hours, we not only met with President López Obrador, we met with the entire Cabinet.”

“Members of our delegation didn’t pull any punches. We did it respectfully, but we forcefully presented our frustration with the ongoing cartel violence, the drug trafficking, and unchecked migration.”

“We told President López Obrador that his administration must do more to address these challenges, and we emphasized that the failure to do so will have a negative impact on our historically strong and important partnership.”