Tired of hearing from Obama White House that the Texas-Mexico border is more secure than ever, the Texas Department of Agriculture, along with the Department of Public Safety, hired two retired U.S. generals to evaluate the true status.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples today released “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment,” an independent study, former generals Barry McCaffrey and Major-General Robert Scales, at the Protect Your Texas Border Summit in Austin.
Among their findings is that “criminality spawned in Mexico is spilling over into the United States.”
Mexican drug cartels intend are building a “sanitary zone” about one county deep within the U.S. along the Texas border. They will use this zone to escape Mexican law enforcement and provide an area of safe movement for drug smugglers and human traffickers.
Texas is the “tactical close combat zone and frontline in this conflict. Texans have been assaulted by cross-border gangs and narco-terrorist activities.”
“Washington keeps telling us our border is more secure than ever, but this detailed military assessment, by two of America’s top generals, offers proof to the contrary,” Commissioner Staples said. “It’s time to shed the cloak of denial and protect our citizens and national security.”
“It’s time for Washington to uphold its constitutional duty to protect Americans on their home soil,” Staples added.
The report offers a military perspective on how to best use “strategic, operational and tactical measures to secure the increasingly hostile border regions” on the border.
Texas landowners and officials have been witnessing and pleading with the Obama Administration for increased federal support to defend the U.S. border.
“During the past two years, the southwestern United States has become increasingly threatened by the spread of Latin American and Mexican cartel organized crime,” said Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.).
“The violence and ongoing threat to our security reflect a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Scales (Ret.). “American cities and rural areas now have Latin American drug, gun and human smuggling cartels operating inside our borders.”
Their findings indicating citizens living and working in a Texas border county is equivalent to living in a warzone. Law enforcement agencies, civil authorities, journalists and citizens are in continuous and growing danger of attack.
There is disparity between reported and actual cartel activity because the 17,000 local and state law enforcement agencies that provide data to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) are not required to categorize these crimes as “drug related.”
More “boots on the ground” to the fight for border security is required.
Texas is the frontline in this escalating war, and the potential consequences of our responses will affect our
