It seems to me that it would be cheaper to invade northern Mexico, seize control of the northernmost 5/10/20 miles and create a dematerialized zone of sorts (even offer it to UN control), which could act as a buffer/filter/control mechanism. Obviously everything tried to date has not worked, and anything which relies on the corrupt culture and government of Mexico will fail. The costs of the status quo are enormous.
The NYT piece on Walmart was a classic. They take a lot of time and space to criticize Walmart for conceding to the culture of corruption there and paying bribes, but they just don’t seem to have the time to illuminate and criticize the endemic corruption of Mexico itself. Walmart bad, Mexico (impliedly) OK. Ugh.
That’s “de-militarized”.