We who are from border States have perhaps a better understanding of the violence--the dramatically increased violence over the last several years. In the last 3 years, 22,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered in this struggle between the drug cartels and the Mexican Government. It is the worst kind of brutality: people being beheaded, bodies hanged from the overpasses. I think it was on the Mexican side of the Texas border the other day. There was a wedding--if the Senator recalls--and the drug cartel people went in and took the groom, the brother, and nephew out and murdered them. That brutality and violence, we all know, is spilling over the border. I believe three American citizens were murdered in Juarez--who were coming back from Juarez. So the violence and the connection between human smuggling and drug cartels now is incredibly intertwined. They use the same routes, the same intelligence, the same sophisticated communications equipment. It is a threat to our security.
Editor's note · Context
The speaker addresses the violence related to drug cartels and its impact on border security.
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