Military intervention at U.S.-Mexico border called last resort

Help might come from the National Guard, or even the Army, if violence in border towns from Mexico's powerful and increasingly violent drug cartels gets bad enough.

WASHINGTON (MCT, Tribune) - With drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexican border growing more deadly, the United States is willing to consider deploying troops to the Southwest, but only as a last resort, a Department of Homeland Security official told members of Congress Thursday.

Help might come from the National Guard, or even the Army, if violence in border towns from Mexico's powerful and increasingly violent drug cartels gets bad enough that Homeland Security officials can't handle it, director of operations coordination Roger Rufe told a House committee.

"The most extreme measure would be calling on significant (Department of Defense) support, which we don't receive at the present time, but nevertheless (it's) there if we need to call on it," Rufe said. "We have actively engaged with our planning process the National Guard, the Department of Defense, and NORTHCOM."

Violence has become a serious issue as Mexican President Felipe Calderon's administration has cracked down on the hugely powerful and influential drug cartels and been met with resistance. Numerous Mexican government officials have been killed, from top federal security officials to local police chiefs. More than 6,000 were killed there in the drug war last year alone.

All of this has not gone unnoticed by the U.S. government, which under the Bush administration began to develop a plan to deal with violence along the Southwestern border.

"The trend of increasing drug cartel violence in Mexico is alarming," Rufe said. "It's a measured plan that ramps up as the threat ramps up, and there are triggers within that to alert leadership when ... the threat of violence has reached a level where forces in place can't address it." However, Rufe said that asking for military help would be a last resort for the Homeland Security Department.

"We would take all resources short of (Department of Defense) and National Guard troops before we reach that tipping point," Rufe said. "We very much do not want to militarize our border." Rufe's testimony followed President Barack Obama's comments Wednesday that while he didn't want to militarize the border between the two countries, he would consider sending troops to assist if violence spilled into the U.S.

"I think if one U.S. citizen is killed because of foreign nationals who are engaging in violent crime, that's enough of a concern to do something about it," Obama said.

Rufe said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to discuss the matter, and that the two had another meeting planned soon.

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