Fox News Interview - Transcript

Interview

FOX News Channel Interview with REP. Michae;l Mccaul (R-TX)
Subject: Drug-Related Violence in Mexico Interviewer: Jon Scott

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MR. SCOTT: Texas Representative Michael McCaul is a member of the Homeland Security Committee, also a former chief of counterterrorism in the U.S. attorney's office with jurisdiction over the Texas-Mexico border.

What are your concerns here, Mr. McCaul?

REP. MCCAUL: Well, first of all, there's a war going on in Mexico. Over -- nearly 6,000 people were killed related to organized crime in Mexico last year, which is more than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. The Department of Justice has -- came out with a report that over 230 cities are impacted by this in the United States, that Mexican gangs are the greatest organized-crime threat to us here in the United States.

So obviously, we're very concerned about this escalating violence going on. President Calderon has dispatched 30,000 troops to the northern -- his northern border, near our southern border, and we've seen a spike in violence occurring. These drug traffickers are very powerful. They have military-grade weaponry. And they are exporting drugs and human trafficking every day into the United States.

MR. SCOTT: So what's the --

REP. MCCAUL: So we're very concerned.

MR. SCOTT: What's the contingency plan? What kinds of assets would Texas be able to throw against what really amount to private armies?

REP. MCCAUL: Well, our governor has requested a thousand additional troops down on the border, and I support him in that. I think we in the Congress have a responsibility that we have been -- have not been engaged in enough, in terms of beefing up our manpower and our resources down on the border. I think the -- we had an initiative to provide military training and assistance to the Mexican military to help them with these cartels, but we've got to put more of these assets, you know, on our side of the border as well.

And Secretary Napolitano, the new Homeland Security secretary, when I questioned her at our hearing last week, didn't rule out the option of a possible joint military exercise. I think if this continues to escalate the way it was, we've got to keep all options on the table, including a joint military exercise with Mexico.

MR. SCOTT: What about flooding the area with huge numbers of National Guard troops?

REP. MCCAUL: I think that's good. I think the way Jump Start worked, though, was that they were only there in an -- providing assistance, not proactively protecting the border. And I think we need to revisit that. And I think that's something the new secretary -- would like to sit down with me and the governor of my state to talk about ways we can more effectively use our military assets to protect this country from, you know, this spillover.

MR. SCOTT: Is it -- is this the kind of thing that, you know, the border fence or better patrolling of the border would stem? Or is this just, you know, so strong, so violent that we're going to have to come up with another way to deal with it?

REP. MCCAUL: Well, I think there are new technologies that are helpful. We have, you know, Predators that go fly overhead to surveil what's happening.

But you have to remember, this is a billion-dollar -- multi- billion-dollar criminal enterprise. As long as there's an appetite for the consumption in this country, they're going to find a way to get it in. And that's the -- that's the inherent underlying problem. And that's why we -- we're seeing so much violence, not only between cartels attacking the other cartels for turf, but the Mexican military attacking these cartels where they've had a surge of troops, if you will, on their side, and now you're seeing a real spike in this violence.

MR. SCOTT: Texas representative Michael McCaul, thanks for being -- for being with us.

REP. MCCAUL: Thank you.

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