Texas lawmakers learn during visit that Mexico has more troops at border than US has agents

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A bipartisan delegation of Texas congressmen traveled to Mexico City this week and reported back that Mexico currently has more troops on its border than the number of Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told Border Report that Mexico “really is trying” to eradicate fentanyl labs, improve its security on its southern border, and deport from its northern border migrants who do not qualify for asylum.

“It’s very difficult. They’re trying and for people to say that Mexico is not doing enough. … They really are trying and we’re trying to help them through technology and through intelligence,” Cuellar told Border Report from his office in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, after returning Wednesday from Mexico City.

The delegation was organized by Republican U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from Austin. Also included were Republican Reps. Randy Weber, whose district includes Galveston, and Tony Gonzales, whose district stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and covers the largest stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border.

All but Gonzales stopped on Saturday in the Rio Grande Valley to see border security operations in Mission, Texas, before their trip to Mexico.

A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers toured the Rio Grande from Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas, on Jan. 20, 2024. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)

On Tuesday the group met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and cabinet members, including Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena.

“We did talk about security. And it was very interesting because Mexico right now has — without giving the exact numbers — more people than we have Border Patrol doing immigration. They have a larger amount of people, and they spend a lot of money every year on border security,” said Cuellar, ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.

This comes after reports that the Mexican Defense Ministry recently deployed 500 troops to the border cities of Matamoros, in the state of Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Nuevo Leon.

“They do have them in different parts of the southern and the northern border. And part of it is to try to get some of those migrants and get them away from the U.S. border and send them back,” Cuellar said.

Mexico is aggressively deporting migrants to their home countries and that includes deportation flights to Venezuela, Cuellar said.

“I represent two-thirds of the Texas-Mexico border and what I’ve seen is there is no amount of razor wire that will stop somebody that has traveled thousands of miles, from returning. You have to start at the very front of that process. You have to prevent them from even beginning that,” Gonzales said. “The facts are nine out of 10 people will not qualify for asylum. So we have to stop sending them on this dead end and we also have to enforce the laws. If somebody comes over and they don’t qualify for asylum we have to deport them to their country of origin because it’s only going to get worse.”

The United States in October began deportation flights to Venezuela, which began out of the Rio Grande Valley in Harlingen.

The delegation also discussed strategies to increase trade between the United States and Mexico and the need to maintain security and stability throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Specifically, they discussed working together to help eradicate fentanyl labs in Mexico, which Cuellar says are very hard to locate because the deadly drugs can be crushed and combined into pills without any smell or other telltale signs, and then smuggled north across the U.S. border.

“They have not captured one single fentanyl lab,” Cuellar said. “There’s no smell, there’s nothing boiling. So it’s so easy to make that and it’s small pills.”

He says U.S. forces can assist with technology and intelligence-gathering to help Mexico locate fentanyl labs, as well as to continue to take down individual distributors or those carrying the pills.

Gonzales says he stressed during meetings the need for both countries to cooperate, not blame one another.

“What I told the Mexican officials is, ‘Look we will always be neighbors but I want us to be partners.’ It can’t just be someone else’s fault,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales also met with two of the leading presidential candidates who are in the running to succeed Lopez Obrador after his term ends on Sept. 30.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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