Authorities find 21 dead bodies in Mexican border town, casualties of drug cartel violence

Mexican authorities found 21 dead bodies in a Mexican border town, which they believe to be casualties of an ongoing drug cartel war that has claimed the lives of thousands already, according to CBS News.

The bodies were found in the town of Miguel Aleman, which is located about 180 miles northwest of McAllen, Texas, the border city President Donald Trump visited this week, and where CNN reporter Jim Acosta recorded a video at the border wall saying there is no national emergency.

Near the remains were seven burned out vehicles. Some of the bodies were burned as well.

While there may not be a crisis in McAllen where the border is secured by a physical barrier, other areas of the border are much more dangerous. CBS News reported that numerous rival drug cartels have been fighting each other for control of the area surrounding Miguel Aleman.

The town is in the state of Tamaulipas, which "has been a major conduit for drug shipments and has also been the scene of some of the worst massacres and fiercest fighting in Mexico's drug war."

More than 28,000 people died in the drug war in 2017, and more than 36,000 more people have disappeared.

Trump has repeatedly emphasized the dangers of drug cartels and other gangs when making his case for the need for a southern border wall.

"Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl," Trump said Tuesday. "Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disagrees that a wall is an effective way to reduce drug trafficking.

"A wall, in my view, is an immorality," Pelosi said before the government shut down over the border wall dispute. "It's the least effective way to protect the border and the most costly. I can't think of any reason why anyone would think it's a good idea—unless this has something to do with something else."

(H/T The Daily Wire)