This past week, NATO leaders met in the Hague to tackle the globe’s most urgent geopolitical flashpoints, from the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine to turbulent defense and economic relations. But right here in our own western hemisphere, a national security crisis is quietly escalating with potentially catastrophic consequences – the unrestrained rise of Mexican drug cartels exploiting the policy divide between the U.S. and Mexico.
While Mexico doesn’t have a seat at the G-7 table, it must have a seat at ours, particularly when it comes to securing our southern border. When U.S. and Mexico’s policies diverge, criminal enterprises thrive. That puts American families, businesses, and critical resources directly in harm’s way.
Cartel violence has long been a scourge on both sides of the border, but this isn’t just about gunfights in Sinaloa or kidnappings in Texas. These are now trans-national criminal enterprises that operate like corporations, trafficking not only drugs and humans, but in everyday commodities that cross our border under the radar. And when policy gaps exist and expand, the cartels fill the void.
Take, for instance, the Mexican government’s sweeping ban on e-cigarettes as implemented by the previous government. In an attempt to curb tobacco use, the government created a black market where none should exist, giving cartels a new channel to fill the void.
In the U.S., Americans can legally purchase and use these products, meanwhile, just across the border, their prohibition has created a smuggler’s paradise for the cartels and their organized drug operations. This disjointed policy does nothing to protect public health and everything to empower organized cartel crime. Worse still, consumers end up using unregulated, unsafe knockoffs that pose a greater danger than the product the ban tried to eliminate.
And there are other, alarming developments. Cartels are now smuggling U.S. oil into Mexico. Earlier this year, a vessel suspected of transporting over 46,000 tons of U.S. fuel illegally into Mexican ports was uncovered, just another example of how deeply embedded and sophisticated these smuggling networks have become. American oil, a strategic national asset, is being siphoned off and traded on the black market by cartel groups with no allegiance to rule of law or national sovereignty.
It’s a national security breach. And it underscores the urgent need for a shared regulatory framework between the U.S. and Mexico.
We need a bilateral strategy rooted in conservative principles of law and order, free and fair trade, and protecting American sovereignty. Without alignment on what goods can legally cross the border and how they’re regulated, we leave the door wide open for cartels to dictate the rules.
The previous Mexican administration’s stance on narcotics and commerce left that door open too long. But there is now an opportunity with a new government in power in Mexico for the U.S. to achieve real cooperation. That means harmonizing policies on consumer products like e-cigarettes, cracking down on illegal oil trade, and building a joint economic and security strategy that removes ambiguity and enforces consequences for bad actors.
If we fail to act in tandem with our Mexican counterparts, we’ll keep playing whack-a-mole with cartels who are always two steps ahead. We need to regulate in a united front, or we risk losing control, not just of the border, but of our national and regional security.
Mr. Jason D. Owens was the 26th Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol. He was appointed to his role in 2023 after more than 27 years of service along the U.S. northern and southern borders.
