On May 19th, morning, the Arizona Republic published an article highlighting former Congressman Matt Salmon's detailed strategy to take on the drug cartels and human traffickers and secure our southern border once and for all.

You can read Salmon's Border Security Policy Paper here and learn more about Operation Copper Shield here.

An excerpt from the article can be found below.

What Would Republican Candidates For Governor Do To Secure Arizona's Border With Mexico?

The former congressman says his plan will help get operational control of the border in his first 100 days in office, meaning "there won’t be the numbers of people coming across the border illegally" and that prevalence of drug and human trafficking will decrease, too.

"On day one, I'm going to declare a state of emergency at the border," Salmon said. "I will proceed to use my bully pulpit and every means necessary to get the cartels designated as a terrorist organization, which I believe would enable the states and the federal government and international allies to do a lot more to stop" drug and human trafficking.

He wants to create a no-trespassing zone, a physical space where he said border crossers would have to turn back or face arrest.

Salmon said National Guard troops would issue warnings in the zone, and people who get arrested would go to tent jails. Salmon will deploy 1,200 armed National Guard troops — with 120 rounds of ammunition each — to known smuggling routes and elsewhere along the border.

Those measures, he said, would eventually serve as a deterrent for criminal activity.

"It will send a message to them that they should look elsewhere if they want to try that kind of illegal activity," he said.

He said he wants to refine Ducey's Border Strike Force within the Department of Public Safety, to refocus those additional law enforcement officers at the border. The unit, which targets drug trafficking and other crimes, has faced criticism for its effectiveness and drug busts that are far afield from the southern border.

Salmon wants to spend hundreds of millions to boost the capacity of law enforcement and prosecutors, and is the only candidate to put dollar figures on his plan thus far. Salmon's plan calls for $200 million in spending, $140 million for mobilizing the National Guard and $60 million to bolster law enforcement resources and prosecutions. The tent jails would be additional to those costs.