AUSTIN, Texas — The recent armed attack on Americans immediately after they drove across the Texas border into Northern Mexico shows that powerful criminal organizations are lurking right outside America’s doorstep, according to Republican lawmakers from the border state.

The March 3 kidnapping of four U.S. citizens ought to serve as an enhanced warning to the U.S. government of how seriously cartels that facilitate human and drug smuggling are about their billion-dollar businesses — and stir the Biden administration and Congress to take major action to stow up the U.S.

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“These cartels are brazen enough to shoot at and kidnap foreign nationals in broad daylight,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in an email to the Washington Examiner Wednesday. “There is no limit to brutality they will use to achieve their ends — the profiteering off of human suffering.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a House Intelligence Committee member and former Navy SEAL, said the incident hit too close to home.

"The cartel-fueled violence can easily spill into the United States and threaten American lives, and that’s exactly what has happened," Crenshaw, who represents a district near Dallas, wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the Biden administration to send in the military to wrap up the initial investigation.

"Our answer is not just go to war with Mexico, the answer is put pressure on Mexico and have the Mexican army show up, arrest these guys, extradite him to the United States — they need to be prosecuted and face the full force of American justice," Cruz told Fox News in an interview with Jesse Watters Tuesday evening. "If we had a president with a scintilla of willingness to stand up to other nations, that's exactly what would be happening, right."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is leading the GOP effort in the Senate to take action against the cartels. Graham and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) announced legislation on Wednesday meant to push the U.S. into action by authorizing the use of the military, potentially within Mexico.

The March 3 incident involved four black Americans who had just crossed the international bridge from Brownsville, Texas, into Matamoros, Tamaulipas and cleared the Mexican customs checkpoint. Pictures from the scene of the kidnapping showed a sign pointing toward the international bridge in the background, an indication of just how close the attack was to the border.

Two of the four died in Mexico and the two others were rescued and brought back to the U.S. Initial reports stated that they had been traveling south of the border for a medical procedure.

Until the situation improves, Americans should rethink spring break travel plans to Mexico this month, according to one security sector expert.

"If you’re going to the border, stay on the U.S. side. The violence occurs on the Mexican side because law enforcement is not as effective or perhaps you have more corruption," said Michael Ballard, director of intelligence for the international security firm Global Guardian, in an interview with Border Report. “Border cities certainly are more dangerous than Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, or Los Cabos. If you’re going to Mexico for spring break, maybe pick one of those locations instead of Tijuana or Matamoros."

Only two of Mexico's 32 states nationwide have no State Department warning. The safer cities that Ballard mentioned are under travel advisories to reconsider visiting or exercise heightened caution.

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The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and State Department have not revealed details of why the four U.S. citizens had traveled in a North Carolina-tagged minivan into Mexico, but theories have begun slipping out.

“There is an active investigation. Our Mexican counterparts are investigating. The FBI of course is involved because of the deaths and abduction of American citizens so we’re going to let that investigation play out,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “It is important to us that justice is done for the deaths of these two Americans — for the abduction of these four Americans. And we don’t want to do or say anything that could stand in the way of that accountability.”