{"id":115283,"date":"2026-02-24T17:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=115283"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:07:18","slug":"115283","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=115283","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

What to do about Mexican Drug Cartels: Letters of Marque<\/a><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Lee Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

SAF Investigative Journalism Project<\/p>\n

Special to Liberty Park Press<\/em><\/p>\n

The United States Congress still retains full authority to issue Letters of Marque, although none have been issued for more than a hundred years.<\/p>\n

A Letter of Marque was actually a simple concept. They allowed private citizens in private warships to attack enemy vessels during wartime. These\u00a0privateers<\/em>\u00a0could then take ownership of whatever plunder they seized\u2014gold, weapons or the captured ships\u2014after an admiralty court ruled in their favor and took a percentage of the profits.<\/p>\n

Letters of Marque were used for hundreds of years across the globe, because they allowed a country to enlarge the size of their navy very quickly and cheaply.<\/p>\n

The authority to issue Letters of Marque can still be found in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution: \u201cThe Congress shall have Power \u2026 to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Congressman Tim Burchett<\/a>, a Republican from Tennessee, and\u00a0Senator Mike Lee<\/a>, a Republican of Utah, who both have extremely solid Second-Amendment credentials, have drafted bills that would revitalize the Letters of Marque, in order to target Mexican drug cartels.<\/p>\n

Congressman Burchett described the bill in a phone call Monday morning:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows the president to contract out to privateers and go after the cartels,\u201d he said. \u201cThese would be top-tier operators, SEALs, Special Forces, Marine Raiders and commando types. Some are still working as private operators. It allows private citizens to act against the cartels. In President Trump\u2019s first term, when he got [Former Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem] Soleimani, the Democrats just berated our military leaders because they didn\u2019t ask for their permission. If the Democrats still want us to ask for their permission, we got some real problems. This is constitutionally provided and has been done before. We went after the Barbary pirates. It\u2019s constitutionally provided and within the law. In this day and age, we need it. The constitution grants congress the power to grant these letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Lee\u2019s bill is titled\u00a0\u201cS. 3567: Cartel Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It is described as: \u201cA bill to authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the United States by a member of a cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked organization, or any conspirator associated with a cartel, and for other purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was introduced before the latest outbreak of cartel violence, which has targeted American tourists in Mexico.<\/p>\n

It specifies that cartels \u201cpresent an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Lee\u2019s bill would allow \u201cprivately armed and equipped persons\u201d to use \u201call means reasonably necessary\u201d to operate outside our borders and seize any individual and their property who the President has determined to be a member of a drug cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked organization, \u201cwho is responsible for an act of aggression against the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressman Burchett was asked if he has discussed his bill with President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not yet, but I put it out there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is constitutionally sound. We live in dangerous times, and we\u2019ve got American people who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to do about Mexican Drug Cartels: Letters of Marque By\u00a0Lee Williams SAF Investigative Journalism Project Special to Liberty Park Press The United States Congress still retains full authority to issue Letters of Marque, although none have been issued for more than a hundred years. A Letter of Marque was actually a simple concept. They … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,79,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-o-the-day","category-government","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115284,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115283\/revisions\/115284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}