It is an idea whose time has come. It would be poetic justice, fulfill a Trump campaign pledge, and wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime. It doesn’t make Mexico pay for the wall exactly, just one particular Mexican who has done great injury to the people of the United States and who is responsible for a major part of drugs flooding into the U.S.

Upon news that Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, more commonly known as El Chapo, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday and ordered to fork over billions, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz resurrected his idea of using any and all assets to be seized from El Chapo’s massive stash be used to build Trump’s border wall. As the Daily Mail reported:

Cruz, a senator from Texas, told TMZ in a short interview on Capitol Hill that the $12.6 billion seized from El Chapo after he was convicted for drug trafficking should be used build President Donald Trump's border wall.

'I think it's great that he's sentenced,' Cruz said. 'I think the next step is to criminally forfeit his entire global criminal enterprise. It's worth billions. And we should use every penny of that money to build the wall and secure the border.' …

'Finding those assets, getting those assets, won't be easy. But we should and the Department of Justice will do it's very best to do that,' he continued…

Cruz says there should be no question or debate over where the funds go when they are eventually obtained -- and in 2017 even introduced the EL CHAPO Act, which didn't go very far. He reintroduced in January the legislation that would allocate El Chapo's money for the border wall.

'He made that money trafficking narcotics illegally into this country,' Cruz said, 'it's only fitting that that money goes to secure the border and stop other traffickers like he was.'

In legislation previously introduced by Cruz -- the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (E.L.C.H.A.P.O.) Act which would use fund confiscated from drug dealers like El Chapo and traffickers to pay for border security. As Cruz explained after introducing his bill in April of 2017:

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill calling for the use of $14 billion seized from cartel drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to be used to pay for the President’s border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

“Fourteen billion dollars will go a long way toward building a wall that will keep Americans safe and hinder the illegal flow of drugs, weapons, and individuals across our southern border,” Senator Cruz stated, according to a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas from the senator’s office…

The Texas senator said that leveraging criminally forfeited assets from El Chapo and other Mexican cartel members and drug dealers can “offset the wall’s cost and make meaningful progress toward achieving President Trump’s stated border security objectives.”

El Chapo is responsible for many crimes against his people and ours, including the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry using a weapon supplied by presidential wannabe and former Obama AG Eric Holder:

We assume Holder reads the morning paper and has heard of the 40 assault weapons illegally purchased under the Phoenix ATF's Fast and Furious operation that somehow wound up in the home of Sinaloa cartel enforcer Torres "the Jaguar" Marrufo. If he has, we suspect his reaction might have been akin to that of another famous sitcom character, Steve Urkel: "Did I do that?"

This is no sitcom, but rather a major tragedy -- and a major crime. Marrufo is the enforcer for Sinaloa Cartel chieftain Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa cartel just 10 miles from the Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz.

Among the weapons Obama and Holder supplied El Chapo with under Fast and Furious was a high-caliber .50-caliber rifle liberals like to rail against: As Fox News reported about Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo”:

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car or, as it was intended, take down a helicopter…

Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that ‘El Chapo’ would put his guardsmen on hilltops to be on guard for Mexican police helicopters that would fly through valleys conducting raids. The sole purpose of the guardsmen would be to shoot down those helicopters, sources said.

Contrary to claims by Sen. Chuck Schumer that border walls are ineffective, the empirical evidence shows that border walls work and no place is better proof than the Yuma sector in Arizona:

For years, Yuma sector was besieged by chaos as a nearly unending flood of migrants and drugs poured across our border. Even as agents were arresting on average 800 illegal aliens a day, we were still unable to stop the thousands of trucks filled with drugs and humans that quickly crossed a vanishing point and dispersed into communities all across the country…

The bipartisan Secure Fence Act of 2006 -- supported by then-Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and others -- mandated the construction of hundreds of additional miles of secure fencing and infrastructure investments. Yuma sector was one of the first areas to receive infrastructure investments.

We built new infrastructure along the border east and west of the San Luis Arizona Port of Entry in 2006. The existing fence was quickly lengthened, and we added second and third layers to that fencing in urban areas. Lighting, roads and increased surveillance were added to aid agents patrolling the border.

Although there is still work to do, the border in Yuma sector today is more secure because of this investment. Even under lax enforcement standards, apprehensions in fiscal year 2016 were roughly a 10th of what they were in FY 2005 -- and are on track to be even lower this year. Crime has significantly decreased in the Yuma area, and smugglers now look for other less difficult areas of the border to cross -- often areas without fencing.

Kate Steinle’s blood, among that of others, is on the hands of open-border advocates and the sanctuary city loons who provide no sanctuary for the American citizen victims of illegal alien criminals. Too many American mothers have become “Angel Moms”, permanently separated from their children by death, ignored by the race-baiting open border advocates such as “The Squad.” Cruz’s idea should be embraced to accelerate funding for and construction of the promised border wall the various sections of which should be named after the victims of illegal alien predators such as Kate Steinle.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.