Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., proposed that money seized from Mexican drug cartels could be used to build a border wall in a Fox News interview on Saturday morning, NOLA.com reports. 

In the interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, Cassidy said he hoped Congress would reach a compromise on the border, even as President Trump has threatened to declare a state of emergency in the midst of the country’s longest government shutdown in history.

However, in the absence of a compromise, the Louisiana senator suggested directing funds taken from drug cartels and drug runners — about $4 billion to $5 billion annually — toward construction of a border wall as well as law enforcement and other border security.

Cassidy said it wouldn’t be Mexican government or the Mexican people who pay for a wall, but “it’ll be the Mexican cartels and that is poetic justice.” He added that his proposal would help bypass the “inevitable lawsuit” that would arise should President Trump declare an emergency.

Watch Sen. Cassidy’s full interview with Fox News.