Did he really say it?  There is a story circulating in the media that President Trump and President Peña-Nieto had a phone chat trying to patch up last week's cancelation.  Some say that President Trump said that there are some "very bad hombres" on the border.

This is an account of the alleged incident:

"You have a bunch of bad hombres down there," Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. "You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it."

No one is confirming anything.  So don't be shocked if this is another one of those news reports about something that really did not happen.  Remember the one about the White House removing Dr. King's bust?  Also, I have a hard time believing that someone would leak such details!

However, you don't need to be an expert on the U.S.-Mexico border to know there are indeed many "bad hombres" running around.  My guess is that previous presidents have had this conversation before.  How can you talk about violence on the U.S.-Mexico border without mentioning the people who operate in that area?

Since 2006, when President Calderón employed the military to fight the cartels, it is believed that 80,000 people have been killed.  I keep hearing 100,000 from friends in Mexico.  They tell me that a lot of dead people are not accounted for. 

Let's put that figure in some context.  Mexico has a population of 100 million people.  It would translate into 240,000 in the U.S. over a ten-year period.

We are not suggesting that President Trump send troops to fight cartels.  I also don't agree that the Mexico Army is afraid to fight these cartels.  In fact, Mexico's armed forces and police have fought hard and taken casualties against these criminal elements.

I do agree that there are some "very bad hombres" killing a lot of innocent people south of the border.  In fact, this is why we must complete the wall.  These "bad hombres" bring drugs north and take weapons south.  The wall will make their daily routine a lot more complicated.

Yes, very "bad hombres" engaging in terrible killing.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.