HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY says Mexican violence has NOT spilled across the boarder
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano denied Thursday that the latest drug-fueled violence in Mexico has spilled across the border, even as local officials throughout the country see troubling signs of Mexican gang activity.
The Department of Justice reports that 230 U.S. cities, from Anchorage to Atlanta have a cartel or Mexican gang presence. A February report from the Cato Institute found a "troubling number of incidents" in which Mexico violence was spilling across the border. It also noted increasing violence against U.S. citizens traveling in the southern neighbor.
Federal authorities say more that $14 billion in illegal drugs are smuggled into the U.S. every year through Mexico. And Phoenix, the capital city of Napolitano's home state of Arizona, recorded 370 kidnappings last year, placing it only second to Mexico City worldwide, though it wasn't immediately clear how many of the kidnappings can be traced to Mexican drug activity.
Napolitano acknowledged Thursday that violence in Mexico "has risen to very high levels." But she said that although the U.S. is planning for the potential for violence to move north across the border, it hasn't happened yet.
"Right now it has not (crossed the border). But it is a contingency we have in mind because it could," the former Arizona governor told reporters. "We have contingency plans should violence spread into the United States."
