It's a report that uses words like "Real War", "Military-Like" and "Narco-Sanctuary” and was released by two senior military officers commissioned by the Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tod Staples.
It’s called Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.
It apparently started with rural farmers and ranchers pleading to the agriculture commissioner for a more secure border.
In it, strategic, tactical and operational suggestions including military style operations for better protecting the border, one that the authors found to be lacking sufficient security to stop spill-over violence from Mexico.
That's where critics are putting their foot down saying this report is making false claims and aims to militarize the border.
They denounce claims such as, "The tactical level is poorly resourced and the most vulnerable to corruption by cartels," and "living and conducting business in a Texas border county is like living in a war zone in which citizens are under attack around the clock."
We took the report to Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos who has supported an increase in security along the border.
"We need more boots on the ground. I support more security on the border. I support southbound inspections. We’ve been talking about this for 4 years now," says Cascos.
He says that while the report may seem controversial, it's actually doing the valley a big favor by opening the eyes of politicians who have never stepped foot on Brownsville soil or looked out over the Rio Grande.
“We can’t send mixed messages to Washington, D.C.”
The authors of the report say if border securities like Brownsville remain insecure, they could become “sanctuaries” for cartels.
Cascos says the words may sound harsh, but they’re true.
In a summary of the assessment, the authors write that "the cartels seek to create a sanitary zone inside the Texas border, one county deep, that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and at the same time enable the cartels to transform Texas border counties into narcotics transshipment points…"
Judge Cascos welcomes these types of assessment saying the more we the problem is ignored, the more freedom the cartels will have to move closer to valley homes.
“The people voting in Washington have never been here to see what is actually happening.”
The report is aimed at gaining more funding for increased security along the border with suggestions that the combat operations start with the Texas Rangers.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT