Abbott designates drug cartel as terrorist organization

 The Center Square:

Leaders in Texas and Washington, D.C., lauded Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move they argue is not only necessary to protect Texans and Americans but one they hope will lead to the governor declaring an invasion at the southern border.

“Fentanyl is a clandestine killer, and Texans are falling victim to the Mexican cartels that are producing it,” Abbott said Wednesday at a border summit in Midland, Texas, surrounded by law enforcement. “Cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way. In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in the past year than all terrorist attacks across the globe in the past 100 years. In order to save our country, particularly our next generation, we must do more to get fentanyl off our streets.”

Abbott also sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that he designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. It’s the second time he’s done so since last April, and he’s gotten no response.

He cites the cartels’ use of fentanyl as a chemical agent to kill Americans at an alarming rate. In one year’s time, fentanyl has killed nearly 20 times more people than those who were killed in terrorist attacks over decades, Abbott said.

“In this light, the magnitude of the terrorism related to the introduction of fentanyl by Mexican drug cartels is astonishing,” Abbott wrote the president. Citing federal data, he said it underscores that fentanyl “is a ‘chemical agent’ used by Mexican drug cartels who know that it ‘endanger[s], directly or indirectly, the safety of one or more individuals.’ … This is ‘terrorist activity’ within the meaning of the INA and fulfills the requirements for designation under Section 219.”

In his executive order, Abbott wrote, “Mexican drug cartels are responsible for trafficking hundreds of millions of lethal doses of fentanyl into Texas and the United States. Over 1,600 Texans were fatally poisoned by drugs containing fentanyl in 2021, representing an increase of more than 680 percent since 2018, and fentanyl’s death toll continues to rise in 2022.”

Since his border security initiative, Operation Lone Star, was launched last March, Texas DPS officials have seized more than 336 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill everyone in the U.S.

In fiscal years 2021 and 2022 so far, CBP agents have confiscated enough fentanyl at the southern border to kill nearly 5 billion people.
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It should be noted that the cartel labs are getting the fentanyl from China.  The suppliers should also be designated as terrorists.  I get the impression that the Biden administration does not care about the impact of its open borders policy and the deaths it is responsible for.  Their contention that the border "is secure" is ludicrous.

See, also:

The Border Crisis Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg. In Mexico, A Cartel Crisis Looms

 Amid record numbers of illegal border-crossers, a larger crisis looms in Mexico with dire implications for the United States.

There is also evidence of Anti-Abbott terrorism:

 SEE IT: Volunteers for Greg Abbott's campaign attacked and have car trashed in 'political violence'