Our southern border is much more secure than it was before January 2025 (and what even took place on that month?) but things are still turbulent; the cartels are still trying to smuggle people and drugs across the border, and we're compelled to understand that "more secure" will never mean "100 percent secure." That's especially true when the cartels are 1) heavily armed, and 2) may well have co-opted some within the Mexican military and police.
The most recent incident came on September 26, when a Coast Guard helicopter patrolling the border came under fire from the Mexican side. The Coast Guard returned fire; nobody in the helicopter was injured and there was no damage reported for the helicopter. The incident was reported to Mexican authorities.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum replied by saying, in effect, "Oh yeah? Prove it."
A firefight involving U.S. Coast Guard personnel along the Mexican border has sparked a dispute between Washington and Mexico City over where the gunfire originated, even as the two countries continue coordinating border security operations.
The Coast Guard told Fox News Digital that personnel conducting joint interdiction operations near Garceno, Texas, came under fire from the Mexican side of the border Sept. 26 and returned fire. No injuries or damage to Coast Guard vessels or equipment were reported, and the incident remains under investigation.
Garceno, Texas is in Starr County, Texas, a designated census area right on the Rio Grande, with a population of 440. The Coast Guard was presumably patrolling the Rio Grande crossing points when they came under fire. The nature of the fire (automatic weapons, rifle fire, for example) has not been released, as there's still an ongoing investigation. That could be significant. If the shots came from military-grade weapons like machine guns, that would imply some military involvement. The Mexican military has been fighting the cartels, but there have long been rumors that some military units have been co-opted.
Here's the onion:
After U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson publicly announced that Coast Guard personnel had come under fire, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum demanded evidence that the shots originated from her country's territory.
"We asked for all the evidence because we have no evidence," Sheinbaum told reporters in Mexico City, saying Mexican security forces had not detected shots originating from their territory.
Honestly, I'll take the word of the United States Coast Guard over the word of Mexican security forces. Our State Department also maintains that all the available evidence has been turned over to the proper Mexican authorities.
Look, it can't be easy or fun to be the president of what looks more and more every day like a failed narco-state. Claudia Sheinbaum is in a difficult spot, and an embarrassing one at that; incidents like this reveal how little control her government has over large portions of her country. But her petulant demand for evidence that her government has already been provided with isn't helping her any. She's running a country that's in decline, seriously so, and that's probably even more true now that the border has been sealed off, making it orders of magnitude more difficult to smuggle people or drugs into the country. Every day it gets more difficult for the cartels, the coyotes and the smugglers. Every day some more border wall goes up; we have seen the problem with drug-running boats dealt with in the great American tradition of a suitable application of high explosives. Now, our forces patrolling the border are taking random shots from parties unknown.
No matter what comes of this ongoing investigation, though, we can already note one thing with satisfaction: The Coast Guard helicopter, when fired upon, returned fire. That's the best deterrent for this kind of thing. Let's hope their marksmanship was better than whoever fired on them.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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