The Pentagon has deployed a U.S. Navy destroyer to the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border, making good on a promise Vice President J.D. Vance made.
The Pentagon has deployed a U.S. Navy destroyer to the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border, making good on a promise Vice President J.D. Vance made two weeks ago in Eagle Pass to ramp up the nation’s military presence to help combat Mexican drug cartels.
“Drone technology that the cartels are using requires, unfortunately, a military response and military support,” Vance said after he toured the border from the sky in a Black Hawk helicopter formation. The Pentagon hasn’t detailed how the USS Gravely will be used, other than to say it will support the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard in both U.S. and international waters. “Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander, U.S. Northern Command. The destroyer, equipped with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, last year spent 9-months near the Red Sea where launched defensive strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, according to the U.S. Navy. The military show of force aimed at the cartels comes on the heels of Trump signing an executive order designating six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Earlier this month, in his address to Congress, he made it abundantly clear that it is time for a more aggressive military approach to those gangs. “The cartels are waging war on America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels,” Trump told Congress. U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, has long been an advocate of pushing the Mexican government to do more to crack down on the cartels or allow the U.S. to work with the Mexican military to disrupt and destroy their operations. Crenshaw earlier this year told me he envisions an arrangement similar to the U.S. operations in Colombia, where U.S. Special Forces assist their Colombian counterparts in combating cartels. 'The Trump administration’s first task will be how do you get them to open the door,” Crenshaw said of Mexico. Some of that may have already been answered with Trump’s ongoing threats of crippling tariffs against Mexican goods if they didn’t do more to combat illegal immigration into the U.S. and fight the cartels. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deployed 10,000 army soldiers to the country's border with the U.S. And at her behest, the Mexican Senate agreed to allow U.S. Army special forces to do joint training programs with the Mexican Navy in Campeche in southern Mexico. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was with Vance in Eagle Pass earlier this month, made clear that he’s all for putting more military force into protecting the U.S. border. He said the public should expect more military presence along the Texas border. “More resources are coming to this border,” Hegseth said. This is all coming as the Trump administration resumes border wall construction in Texas. Over the weekend, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced they awarded a $70 million contract for seven miles of construction in Hidalgo County. More on that contract in my latest story here.
U.S. Navy Congress U.S. Northern Command U.S. Special Forces U.S. Customs And Border Protection USS Gravely Black Hawk Houthi U.S. Border Patrol U.S. Coast Guard Tomahawk Mexican Navy U.S. Army Senate J.D. Vance Dan Crenshaw Trump Pete Hegseth Claudia Sheinbaum Gregory Guillot R U.S. Texas-Mexico Mexican Red Sea Gulf Coast Eagle Pass Colombia Yemen Houston Campeche Hidalgo County
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