Republicans are increasingly coalescing around the idea of deploying military troops to Mexico as one way to take action as the fentanyl epidemic rages within the United States.

GOP presidential contenders and Republicans on Capitol Hill have floated a variety of proposals in recent days to take action to cut off the supply of fentanyl precursors being shipped from China to Mexico, where the final product is concocted in underground labs operated by cartels.

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Former President Donald Trump called for the Navy to form a maritime wall to block incoming cargo ships from docking in Mexico. Cartels make fentanyl and then move it across the border into the U.S., where it is dispersed across the country. In 2021, as fentanyl became more available in the U.S., drug-related deaths topped 100,000 and were largely fueled by the influx of fentanyl into the illicit drug market.

Fellow 2024 contender Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said in late June that the U.S. should shoot drug smugglers who attempt to breach the border wall, and he also supported the port blockade proposal.

"If the cartels are cutting through the border wall trying to run product into this country, they’re going to end up stone-cold dead as a result of that bad decision," DeSantis said.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told NBC's Meet the Press this weekend that he wants the U.S. "to use the power of the U.S. military to go after these drug cartels," the Washington Examiner reported Sunday.

"You think the fentanyl problem is bad now — what about three years from now when the Mexican drug cartels are more powerful than the Mexican government itself?" Vance asked. "If we actually have some real American leadership, we can make some good progress here."

Other senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Kennedy (R-LA), have gotten behind the idea of sending the military into Mexico and not simply to surrounding parts of the country.

Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) have sponsored legislation to declare war on the cartels, an action that would allow the military to drop a bomb on targets in Mexico. But Waltz said launching an all-out war is not the smartest move at this point.

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“I push back on the reflexive, automatic reaction of Republicans want to declare war on Mexico or we’re talking an invasion of Mexico. That’s sophomoric,” Waltz told the Wall Street Journal. “What we’re talking — it’s a much more nuanced approach."

Republicans may be reading the writing on the wall as recent polling by NBC showed that sending troops to the border was the most-supported proposal of 11 pitched to Republican primary voters.