Cartels feel 'emboldened' by weak US policies: Sheriff Mark Lamb
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb discusses violence in Arizona and the Red Cross providing migrants with packets detailing resources for crossing the southern border.
The American Red Cross is under fire for reportedly providing migrants with maps and guides to help them make the dangerous journey through Mexico to the U.S. border.
Packets stamped with the American Red Cross logo revealed by the Daily Caller News Foundation include the locations of hotels and clinics, routes to American border cities and tips on "self care" and the use of contraceptives.
Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb said the packets prove how treacherous the journey is.
"They didn't tell asthmatics to bring their inhalers. They didn't tell diabetics to bring their diabetes medicine, but they did tell the women to bring contraceptives because they know that women are being raped," Lamb said on "Fox & Friends First" Friday.
A Red Cross map provides routes and resources for migrants to make the journey to the U.S. border. (The Daily Caller News Foundation/"Fox & Friends First")
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Lamb argued the message the American Red Cross should send instead is: "Do not cross."
The journey, the desert, the snakes and the people are all too dangerous, he said.
"We can't keep making it easy for them and telling them how to do it."
Immigrants warm by a fire at dawn after spending a night alongside the U.S.-Mexico border fence on December 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Lamb then called out the Biden administration for failing to address the migration and drug crises at the border and, as a result, "emboldening" criminal cartels.
"The weakness of these policies has created strength for the cartels," Lamb said.
Lamb said cartels feel like they can get away with anything – from kidnapping and killing Americans to trafficking drugs like fentanyl.
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The sheriff, who said he has also lost a child recently, offered prayers and condolences for the families of the two Americans recently killed by cartel members in Matamoros, Mexico. He said the U.S. government now needs to act swiftly and strongly in response.
"We cannot let this kind of behavior go unchecked or it's going to just continue to cause problems. It's going to cost more American lives," Lamb told host Ashley Strohmier.
"Let's not forget the 107,000 American lives that were poisoned last year. Those lives matter as well," he said in reference to U.S. fentanyl deaths.
Note allegedly left by the Gulf Cartel for Mexican authorities apologizing for the actions of some members it claimed were responsible for the kidnap and murder of Americans last week. (Twitter)
Mexican President Obrador, however, claimed Thursday his country doesn’t produce fentanyl and said it’s an American problem.
"They don't care about American lives," Lamb responded. "They don't care that the fentanyl poisoning that's coming from Mexico is killing American lives every day. It doesn't matter to them, and it won't start mattering to them until they're impacted by it.
Lamb said Americans should be very concerned about the Mexican government’s seemingly friendly relationship with the cartels.
Obrador also discouraged the U.S. military from sending troops to the border, a measure that Lamb said is needed.
"I don't think Afghanistan or Iraq necessarily wanted us there either, but we went over there," he said. "We got this right at our doorstep. This is right in our backyard."
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He said his community is feeling frustrated and left behind by the administration’s lack of action.
"We just don’t have the strength that we need along the border, and [cartels] know that," he said. "So yes, having a stronger presence, whether it's the military, more Border Patrol agents, more local law enforcement, a stronger presence would absolutely decrease this traffic we're seeing."