Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of Senate Bill 1884, which would enable Texas to penalize corrupt foreign actors who pose a threat to our state and our fellow Texans and put pressure on foreign countries to fight corruption and collusion.
My name is Melissa Ford Maldonado, and I am the policy director for Secure & Sovereign Texas, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Foundation appreciates and is grateful for this committee’s work.
In my role, much of my work focuses on Mexico policy, specifically on researching critical issues such as organized crime, drug trafficking, trade, and corruption & collusion by state actors in Mexico. The Foundation’s latest research on these topics provides a deep dive into the complex dynamics of corruption in Mexico. It establishes irrefutable evidence of collusion between the Mexican state and criminal cartels, shedding light on corruption at every level of the government.