Mexico is run by a mixture of politicians, local strongmen and cartels. The apparent murder of women and children from the LeBaron family by cartel gunmen is a horrifying crime. It's also a reminder of why we have borders. And why we need them.

At least three American mothers and six children from a Mormon family were killed in a shooting in the Mexican border state of Sonora on Monday in an attack blamed on drug cartel gunmen. Seventeen family members from the LeBaron and Langford families were 'ambushed' eight miles apart while heading to celebrate a wedding anniversary in three cars from La Mora - a decades-old settlement founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In horrific scenes, gunmen opened fire on one child running away before torching a car as family members burnt to death while trapped inside. Other young children managed to escape and hid by the roadside while a mother was shot in the chest as she put her hands up to surrender. Relatives fear the missing may have been kidnapped and raped after a family member reported receiving a phone call hearing screams before a killer executed them. A relative said a boy concealed his wounded siblings - some less than a year old - in bushes before he ran back to the nearby town to get help after his mother was gunned down. In last night's massacre, Rhonita Maria LeBaron was traveling to Phoenix when her car broke down, according to relatives. Gunmen opened fire and torched her vehicle causing the gas tank to explode where she died along with her twin six-month-old babies, Titus and Tiana and two more of her children Krystal, 10, and Howard, 12. Eight miles ahead, Christina Langford Johnson, 31, Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and two of Dawna's children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, were also killed in other SUVs. Other family members are still unaccounted for.

This is Mexico. It's South America. If we don't want this in America, we need a border wall and we need an end to asylum requests.

We should also stop treating Mexican cartels as if they were merely criminals. These are heavily armed organizations with better weapons and equipment, in some cases, than ISIS. They control sizable swathes of territory and have more power than the military.

Mexico is not in control of its own territory. And that means we're not in control of it either.

The administration could seize this opportunity to treat these brutal killings as an act of war. And create a security zone inside Mexico controlled by our own military that would prevent illegal migrants from approaching the United States and demanding asylum.

Remember, a wall will not stop asylum requests. And they're just as big of a problem as illegal border crossers.

A security zone controlled by the military however could stop illegal migration completely. Do we want US soldiers in Mexico? Not really. But it beats having cartel members in America. And seeing massacres like these on our own soil.

MS-13 is already carrying out brutal atrocities in this country. Its targets are mostly members of its own community. But it won't stay that way.