Officials debate threat of cartels along Texas border

At least two U.S. congressmen from Texas on Friday disputed a recent report penned by two retired U.S. Army officers that states the area along the Texas-Mexico border has become a war zone because of the ongoing drug cartel violence.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D- Laredo, and U.S. Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, D- El Paso, voiced concerns — at times heated — that the re-port, “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment,” misconstrued what is actually happening in the Texas communi-ties along the border with Mexico.

“I would be the last one to question your motives” behind the report, Reyes said, but “our southern border is not in chaos, it is not a war zone.”

The report was discussed at a hearing of the Homeland Security Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee in which the authors of the report, retired Brig. Gen. Barry McCaffrey and retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, appeared as witnesses.

The hearing was titled “A Call to Action: Narco-Terrorism’s Threat to the Southern U.S. Border.”

The report, which focused on Texas, says the state faces a lethal, elusive, creative, ruthless, well-armed and superbly financed enemy who is trying to learn and adapt at a faster pace than its American enemy.

The report also warns of the drug cartels’ intent to move operations into Texas border cities.

Cuellar took issue with the portrayal of border cities as violent, considering the murder rates in Texas border towns are much lower than the rates in many other cities around the nation. He cited Washington, D.C., which has an annual homicide rate of 23 per 100,000 residents.

“Would you call Washington, D.C., a war zone? Just a yes or no,” Cuellar asked McCaffrey. McCaffrey replied, “Questions are never answered with yes or no. I am not going to answer a question with yes or no.”

Cuellar also questioned how much McCaffrey was paid to compile the report, which he stated was filled with anecdotal informa-tion. Cuellar suggested McCaffrey was paid $80,000 with taxpayer money to author the report.

McCaffrey took offense. “Are you suggesting that this report had political or monetary motivation? If you are, sir, that is a shame. My dedication to the country is based on 30 years of service,” he said.

The report is the result of the Texas Legislature’s call to the Texas Department of Agriculture to assess the impact of illegal ac-tivity along the border on landowners and the agriculture industry.

TDA joined with the Texas Department of Public Safety and commissioned McCaffrey and Scales to do the assessment.

While border cities might not feel the impact of the drug cartels, it is the rural areas along the border that are being directly im-pacted, officials said.

The report notes that accounts of violence compiled by federal agencies, congressional testimony and Texas Department of Agri-culture underscore the “daily activity and constant threat of a larger presence of narco-terrorists than previously thought.”

“These are huge, lethal organizations who, so far, by and large have decided for business reasons to not go after U.S. law en-forcement generally on our side of the frontier,” Scales said. “This situation is getting worst and we have to organize ourselves now to protect ourselves.”

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, has filed legislation that would classify drug cartels as “foreign terrorists.”

“As we draw down in the Afghan conflict, it is my hope that we can channel those resources to this threat,” McCaul said.

The subcommittee also heard testimony from Dr. Michael Vickers, a veterinarian at the Las Palmas Veterinary Hospital in Fal-furrias, who said ranchers and landowners in rural areas of Brooks County are constantly threatened by drug dealers and organized criminal activity.

“Ranchers are being threatened if they call Border Patrol or law enforcement to report smuggling activities on their ranch,” Vickers said. “Some have left their ranches and have moved to cities.”

“Most unsettling is the bodies showing up on our ranches in Brooks County,” he said.

“One day my wife came home, she noticed the dogs playing with a round object in the yard. It was a woman’s skull. Her body was found about 150 yards from our back door. She had a broken tibia. She didn’t walk out there with a broken leg. We suspect rape and murder,” Vickers said.

While Cuellar and Reyes appeared to take issue with the report, they both agreed that additional funding and other resources need to be deployed to the Texas border.

“I will protect the border no matter who it is. Shame on anybody who wants to attack the border. ... We are all Americans and we want to do the right thing, I am just saying let’s do it together,” Cuellar said.