Stage 3

On February 18, 2019, Senator Ted Cruz wrote the commentary MAKE 'EL CHAPO' PAY FOR THE BORDER WALL on the Texas Insider. Ted Cruz is one of the two Republican Texas senators. Senator Cruz main goal for the article is to convince the reader that the famous drug lord El Chapo's seized drug money should go towards building the Texas/ Mexico border wall. Since Trump's election there have been many different theory's on how to pay for the border wall: Mexico will pay for it, the state of Texas will use their rainy day fund, the taxpayers will pay for it, and now Cruz's theory to use the seized drug money. Cruz begins his argument by starting off with a phrase that draws in the reader's attention: "there a solution here that secures the border and won't cost the taxpayers one dime." Cruz throwing in "you will not have to pay for it", could make some people who are on the fence about the border wall, want the border wall because it is costing them nothing. Cruz goes on to make El Chapo seem like a terrible person and we should want to take his money by telling the reader, how many people he killed (including "innocent teachers visiting and law enforcement"), the number of drugs he brought in, and the addiction and misery he caused. The way Cruz has structured his article makes the reader not care about the sentencing that El Chapo gets instead its focused on here's a terrible person who caused pain and misery to citizens of the U.S. lets take his money to use it for a border wall. El Chapos seized money is about $14 billion dollars. Cruz article is set up in a way to make the reader want to build a border wall with the seize $14 billion.