Former President Donald Trump (https://archive.ph/o/oNfqv/https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/donald-trump), who has previously called for building a wall along the southern border and giving drug dealers the death penalty, has also proposed creating a naval blockade (https://archive.ph/o/oNfqv/https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-ending-the-scourge-of-drug-addiction-in-america) of Mexico to prevent drugs like illicit fentanyl from entering the U.S. His leading opponent in the 2024 GOP nomination race, Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis (https://archive.ph/o/oNfqv/https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/ron-desantis), promised last week to use “deadly force” against anyone caught smuggling drugs across the border.

On Capitol Hill, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and John Kennedy (R., La.) have both voiced support for military operations in Mexico. Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) said in a recent interview on NBC that cartels should be considered terrorist organizations, meriting a military response. And Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas) and Mike Waltz (R., Fla.) have sponsored a bill that would formally declare war on the cartels—meaning the military would be authorized to drop bombs on cartel targets.

There is a simple reason the idea of a military intervention keeps cropping up—it is popular, and not just with Republicans. In an NBC poll taken in late June, sending troops to the border to stop drugs was the single best-liked of 11 GOP proposals tested with Republican primary voters. And it was the only one that gained support from a majority of all registered voters. 

DeSantis has for months advocated blockading legal ports of entry with Mexico, where nearly all the illicit fentanyl is thought to be smuggled in from Mexico. But in the first formal policy rollout of his campaign, DeSantis escalated that language, saying anyone caught at the border with drugs could be shot.

 “You’re already on U.S. soil once you’re cutting through the wall. You have hostile intent,” DeSantis said at the Texas border (https://archive.ph/o/oNfqv/https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/26/ron-desantis-texas-border-mexico/) last week. “You absolutely can use deadly force.…We absolutely can respond if you’re breaking into our country and sawing through a border wall.”

In 2019, Trump sent thousands of troops to the border to assist with a surge of asylum-seeking migrants—though the troops weren’t actually allowed to perform arrests and they didn’t cross into Mexico. Biden did the same this spring as his administration anticipated a wave of illegal migration associated with the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era border policy.

As president, Trump floated to aides the idea of shooting migrants in the legs to deter them from crossing into the U.S. illegally, according to people familiar with his thinking—though he never voiced the idea publicly.

https://archive.is/oNfqv