Alabama’s U.S. senators on Friday expressed their support for a bill that would inflict “crushing consequences” on the Mexican government over its seizure of Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials’ property there.

Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, both Republicans, spoke in favor of the Defending American Property Abroad Act, which they are both co-sponsoring and would prohibit the Mexican government from profiting from its unlawful seizures of Vulcan’s property and port facility in Mexico, among other provisions.

In May 2022, the Mexican government forcibly shut down Vulcan’s operations in Mexico. About a year later, Mexican military police breached Vulcan’s port facility at gunpoint.

“Instead of using its armed forces to confiscate the fentanyl killing hundreds of American citizens every single day, the Mexican military … confiscated a port rightfully owned by an American company – an Alabama company. Instead of going after the cartels, our neighbor went after law-abiding Americans,” Britt said.

Alabama’s junior senator noted the seizure occurred under then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who claimed Vulcan’s activities were harming the environment and declared the land a nature reserve.

“Make no mistake: that action was illegal under both Mexican and international law, and it’s unacceptable that Mexico’s new President [Claudia Sheinbaum] seems to be carrying the water for him,”

Vulcan has had a presence in Mexico for 30 years, Tuberville noted, and has paid million in taxes to the Mexican government and hired Mexican nationals to work at the facility in Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula.

He called the Mexican government’s claim that Vulcan has been operating illegally “categorically false.”

Tuberville said the seizure “represents a baseless attack on U.S. companies and demonstrates a disregard for rule of law.”

While Alabama’s senior senator said he had confidence in President-elect Trump standing up for Vulcan, he implored President Biden to use diplomatic channels and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “to ensure Vulcan can retain critical operations in Mexico.”

“We cannot allow this to stand, and I know President Trump is not going to allow this to stand,” Tuberville said, adding that Mexico’s actions will discourage future U.S. investment in the country.

“It’s a fight any country should think twice about starting,” he said.

The bill would also deny access to U.S. ports to any vessel in the Western Hemisphere that seizes American companies.

Any country that violates the bill, should it become law, “will be met with crushing consequences,” Britt said.

“The U.S. can no longer stand by as its companies are terrorized by foreign governments,” she said. “We will not sit back and watch as our own government allows our interests around the world, in our own hemisphere, to come under attack.”