US proposes military operation against Mexican cartels

Republicans running for president and in Congress are coalescing around a controversial way to wage war against illegal drugs—sending the US military into Mexico.

Former President Donald Trump, who has previously called for building a wall along the southern border and giving drug dealers the death penalty, has also proposed creating a naval blockade of Mexico to prevent drugs like illicit fentanyl from entering the US His leading opponent in the 2024 GOP nomination race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, promised last week to use “deadly force” against anyone caught smuggling drugs across the border, The Wall Street Journal reports.

On Capitol Hill, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and John Kennedy (R., La.) have both voiced support for military operations in Mexico. Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) said in a recent interview on NBC that cartels should be considered terrorist organizations, meriting a military response. And Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas) and Mike Waltz (R., Fla.) have sponsored a bill that would formally declare war on the cartels—meaning the military would be authorized to drop bombs on cartel targets.

There is a simple reason the idea of a military intervention keeps cropping up—it is popular, and not just with Republicans. In an NBC poll taken in late June, sending troops to the border to stop drugs was the single best-liked of 11 GOP proposals tested with Republican primary voters. And it was the only one that gained support from a majority of all registered voters. 

The poll findings reflect growing anxiety for Americans, as a continuing opioid crisis fuels record numbers of drug-overdose deaths. In many of those cases, Americans are taking other drugs they don’t realize are laced with deadly fentanyl.

The rhetoric is also useful for Republican candidates eager to campaign on border and immigration policy, a topic that polls have repeatedly shown is a top concern for GOP voters but which ranks as a lower priority for most Democrats. And as illegal crossings at the border have recently plummeted following the implementation of new Biden administration immigration policies, it gives candidates something new to talk about.

“What we see in polling is a pretty big shift toward Republicans on all questions related to border security and immigration,” said Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster and digital strategist. “So it’s not surprising that you’re seeing Republican primary candidates up the ante.”

Doris Meissner, who served as the top immigration official under the Clinton administration, said the Republican proposals are problematic because deploying the US military on domestic soil to perform law-enforcement functions is illegal, and performing military operations in Mexico without the explicit cooperation of the Mexican government would be an act of war against a sovereign country.

“Military training and military operations are intended to kill in warlike situations. That’s not what we need here,” she said. “It’s completely rhetorical and intended to arouse.”

In a comprehensive plan to “end America’s drug addiction crisis” released last month, Trump promised to partner with companies willing to hire people formerly addicted to opioids and fund faith-based treatment programs. But the top items on his agenda involve sending the military to “inflict maximum damage” on cartel operations and pressure Mexico to cooperate, something that the country’s government has repeatedly said it is unwilling to do.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

DeSantis has for months advocated blockading legal ports of entry with Mexico, where nearly all the illicit fentanyl is thought to be smuggled in from Mexico. But in the first formal policy rollout of his campaign, DeSantis escalated that language, saying anyone caught at the border with drugs could be shot.

 “You’re already on US soil once you’re cutting through the wall. You have hostile intent,” DeSantis said at the Texas border last week. “You absolutely can use deadly force.…We absolutely can respond if you’re breaking into our country and sawing through a border wall.”

In 2019, Trump sent thousands of troops to the border to assist with a surge of asylum-seeking migrants—though the troops weren’t actually allowed to perform arrests and they didn’t cross into Mexico. Biden did the same this spring as his administration anticipated a wave of illegal migration associated with the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era border policy.

As president, Trump floated to aides the idea of shooting migrants in the legs to deter them from crossing into the US illegally, according to people familiar with his thinking—though he never voiced the idea publicly.

In an interview, Waltz argued there is precedent for a military anti-drug operation. During the administration of President George W. Bush, the US military worked with the Colombian government to train military forces to fight drug cartels there and use chemicals to prevent the cultivation of the coca plant, which was fueling the conflict in that country.

Waltz said a formal authorization of force against cartels would empower the military to surveil cartel activity using its most advanced drones and disrupt cartel supply chains.

“I push back on the reflexive, automatic reaction of Republicans want to declare war on Mexico, or we’re talking an invasion of Mexico, that’s sophomoric,” he said. “What we’re talking, it’s a much more nuanced approach.”

Asked if the US should be bombing cartels, Waltz said, “That wouldn’t be the first thing I would do.”