Hutchinson: We Can’t Fix Border Without Pressuring Mexico to Do More Against Cartels

On Friday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co.,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) argued that we can’t be successful in controlling drug smuggling or the flow of migrants at the border “without taking on the cartel in a greater sense, with the cooperation of Mexico, we have to use tools that are at our hands in order to pressure Mexico to do more. That is the biggest challenge that we face.”

Hutchinson said, “[I]t also takes an international effort. It takes pressure on China to control the fentanyl production, which is difficult with China’s adversarial relationship with us recently. It also takes pressure on Mexico. When I was head of the DEA, we went after the cartel in cooperation with Mexico. We had some success at that, dismantling the Tijuana Cartel, but they have rebuilt themselves and the cooperation with Mexico has been diminished. We cannot be successful on our border, whether you’re talking about human smuggling or drug smuggling or just the migrant flow that goes through there without taking on the cartel in a greater sense, with the cooperation of Mexico, we have to use tools that are at our hands in order to pressure Mexico to do more. That is the biggest challenge that we face.”

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