Mexico willing to partner with U.S. to stop cartels, Rep. Crenshaw says | Texas: The Issue Is

Crenshaw: Mexico wants to team up to take down cartels

Rep. Dan Crenshaw says Mexico's new administration is looking to form a new partnership with the United States to take on the cartels. Could it actually happen? Then, Texas considers expanding its Compassionate Use program for medical marijuana.

With border crossings plummeting, some U.S. officials have turned their eye to battling violent Mexican drug cartels responsible for trafficking fentanyl.

Houston-area Congressman Dan Crenshaw tells Texas: The Issue Is that Mexico's new government is embracing the prospect of a partnership with the United States in an effort to stop the smuggling of drugs and humans across the border.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw on efforts to stop the cartels

Rep. Dan Crenshaw

What they're saying:

For the last 18 months, the Texas Republican has led a task force aimed at neutralizing the cartels and the clear, present and continuing danger that comes with them.

"There is a true terrorist insurgency in a country that is right on our border. That's just something we can't accept as a security issue," said Crenshaw. "You just can't have a Mexico that is a narco state. That's not good for America. It's our biggest trading partner. It's right on our border. We have an interest in having a prosperous and safer Mexico that, you know, that doesn't have to deal with things like mass graves. I mean, just recently you can start going down the list of atrocities that you see down there and those affect Americans too."

For the first time in recent history, Mexico's new administration wholeheartedly agrees. Crenshaw says President Claudia Scheinbaum is looking to forge an unprecedented partnership to dismantle and potentially eradicate the cartels.

"There's a new administration in Mexico, which has opened up a huge amount of opportunity. They want to partner with us in a way that Mexico has not wanted to partner with us before," Crenshaw said. "They need help, right? They don't have close air support assets like we would have. They don't have enough Blackhawk [helicopters] for transport. They don't enough intelligence and ISR platforms. We need to have a program where we deliver this."

To cement the alliance, Crenshaw is crafting a measure known as the North America First Security Assistance Initiative. Money, training, intel, and equipment to neutralize an ongoing threat responsible for immense human carnage each and every year on both sides of the border. Perhaps most critical, Crenshaw says he's got the full backing of President Donald J. Trump.

"He put it in very simple terms, you know, ‘We want to kill them, right?’ That's the Trump administration's position and that's also the Mexican administration's position," Crenshaw said. "My job in Congress is to make sure that we're developing that strategy. And that's what I've been working on for a year and a half is that counterinsurgency strategy. It doesn't just involve the Department of Defense. It involves all levels of government, the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, from the DEA to the FBI to the DOJ."

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Tom Homan, the Trump administration's "border czar," is pleased by the progress that has been made at the border so far, but says the goal is now to "finish the job."

Crenshaw, a Navy SEAL who served combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, emphasized the critical, time-sensitive nature of embracing a new level of cooperation with Mexico's chief executive and the forces she commands.

"There's a long history between the United States and Mexico. It's not like working with Columbia, like we have for the last 30-plus years, where they welcomed U.S. support. That has not been the case with Mexico, but it has changed under this administration, and we've got to walk through that door of opportunity," Crenshaw said.

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