I think I've brought this up before up-thread, but if you don't follow and listen to the talks from former Mexican Federale Ed Calderon, I suggest you give him a try. He worked in in counter-narcotics and organized-crime units. Edsmanifesto on the socials. He has a grin perspective on what the US us up against. Mexico is a narco-state. Full stop. Further, they have infiltrated every facet of the government at all levels in Mexico. Much like doing business in China, you have to know you are also doing business with the CCP. Same with the cartels. They make as much, if not more in "legitimate" business as they do illegal. Then you have trafficking, which they are among the world leaders in.
The extent of what the US is up against
Further, to the point of pinpoint attacks - they have also infiltrated almost every major city in the US. Direct attacks would have catastrophic results here. They want to kill a million Americans overnight? They could taint products intentionally and see hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans OD within days or weeks. That's before terror attacks are even introduced. Then you have next level leaders. Take out one head of the snake, etc. They could shut down our economy overnight if they wanted to. Tens of thousands of OD'ing people, coupled with indiscriminate terror attacks across the country. Full stop, the economy grinds to a halt. And I'm not talking about drug users dying. I'm talking about millions hooked on pharmaceutical pain pills that come from Mexico.