What is behind Republicans' rhetoric about sending military to Mexico?

The Republicans want to send the military to... Mexico? It was quite a prominent topic of the first presidential debate of the GOP candidates. So what is behind this rhetoric? Is Mexico a functioning state taking into account the strong presence of drug cartels that are shipping highly lethal fentanyl to the US? I talked to Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She visited Mexico in June and July, so I also asked her how dangerous it is to conduct the field research there. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/amatisak