Cuellar: Mexico Needs to Do More on Fighting Crime, Drugs

Monday on Bloomberg’s Balance of Power, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) complained that Mexico could do more to work with the United States on fighting crime and drugs and that the Mexican government sometimes fails to act on intelligence that the United States gives it.

“Mexico is doing some of the work. But they can do a lot more. They can work with us a lot more,” Cuellar stated.

Later he added, “Look, the U.S. can do a lot. We provide a lot of information to them. Sometimes, the Mexicans don’t act on the intel that we give them. On the extradition, I think maybe the Mexicans put a hold on that because of what’s happening with the violence that we’re seeing down there. As you know, the gangs decided to cause some disruptions over there. But it’s important to understand that we have to look at this security, because, look, the U.S. can do so much to help the Mexican security there, especially when it comes to drugs.

“And we need to understand the narrative here and the facts,” Cuellar continued. “My Republican colleagues all say, oh, the migrants are bringing the drugs, they’re coming in across the border. If they look at the facts, 94% of the meth will come through the ports of entry. 91% of the fentanyl will come through ports of entry. So, we’ve got to put the canines, the technology, the personnel at the ports of entry. That’s what President Biden did. He saw there, he saw how they smuggled the drugs, and we’ve just got to make sure we’re data, fact-driven when it comes to border security and not just go on narratives that [make] good political sense.”

What’s not “fact-driven” is the notion that the tsunami of migrants flooding over our unguarded border is simply a Republican “narrative” and not a dangerous reality.