U.S. intelligence places Mexican cartels as most immediate threat to America

Cartels and gangs pose the most direct danger to the U.S., intelligence officials said Tuesday as they delivered their annual global threat assessment to Congress.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said they have flooded America with drugs, helped illegal immigrants swamp the border and are growing increasingly violent in the areas south of the border where they operate.

She said the cartels and gangs are what “most immediately and directly threaten the United States.”

She pointed to more than 50,000 synthetic opioid deaths she attributed to the cartels and to the largely Chinese firms that supply the precursor drugs as the largest manifestation of the threat.

Ms. Gabbard said the U.S. still faces threats from the Islamic State and challenges from Russia, Iran, North Korea and China, which she labeled as America’s most dangerous state foe.

“China stands out as the actor most capable of threatening U.S. interests globally,” she said, though she said the communist country is more cautious than the others, chiefly because it doesn’t want to risk its economy or global image.

Left out of the report is any mention of climate change, which had been in previous assessments.

Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, said that was odd.

“Did you instruct that there be no finding in terms of climate change in this report?” he demanded of Ms. Gabbard.

“I don’t recall giving that instruction,” she replied.

Democrats also chided the intelligence leaders over the exclusion of any mention of Canada in the drug smuggling concerns.

President Trump has cited drugs coming across the northern border as justification for his tough new tariffs.

“I was surprised, given the rhetoric, that there was no mention of Canada,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Democrat.

Mr. Trump has pushed his administration onto an aggressive footing when it comes to the cartels and international gangs, such as Tren de Aragua.