Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley appeared before Congress to address the crisis at the southern border but told lawmakers that using the U.S. military at the southern border to combat the cartels would only make matters worse. The cartels in Latin America make billions funneling migrants and deadly narcotics illegally over the southern U.S. border which has spiked to all time highs under the Biden administration. During testimony before Congress, Milley agreed with the Republican assessment of the border acknowledging that the cartels are "taking advantage" of the U.S. but dealing with the cartels is not a job for the U.S. military, rather law enforcement and intelligence services.
“Until there’s a policy change, if there’s ever going to be a policy change this is fundamentally a law enforcement and intelligence operation,” he said during testimony at the Armed Services Committee Wednesday. “There’s no question that there’s a vulnerability on our southern border. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out,” he added. Milley acknowledged how thousands of migrants are illegally entering the U.S. and how the cartels have increased trafficking of narcotics especially a "major league fentanyl crisis." Because the situation has escalated to a critical breaking point, some lawmakers have called for the U.S. military to intervene and target drug cartels with deadly force.  Republican Florida Rep. Mike Waltz co-sponsored legislation in January which would grant the President of the United States the ability to declare war on drug cartels, authorizing the use of lethal force. Milley told a very different story than Biden's own Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, who still as of today will not admit that there is a major crisis at the border. According to CNN, the Biden administration has finally proposed a new policy to stop asylum seekers from entering the United States if they traveled through separate countries before applying, which President Trump already but into action during his administration. During his testimony, Milley also acknowledged that law enforcement at the southern border does not have the sufficient assets to uphold the law and stop the illegal entry of migrants and narcotics.