Drug Cartels to be designated as terrorist organizations
House Republicans plan to introduce a bill that would officially designate several major Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), legislation that would make President Donald Trump’s executive order more permanent.
The Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act calls for labeling the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion as FTOs, according to legislation obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The legislation would additionally require the State Department to issue a report to Congress on these criminal organizations and any other cartels that meet the standard of an FTO designation.
“The cartels have spent the last four years exploiting our border to profit off of misery, fear, and death,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the sponsor of the bill, said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
“Now that their open-borders cash flow is about to dry up, they have resorted to planting live explosives on the Texas border and shooting at Border Patrol agents in broad daylight,” Roy continued. “They are terrorists and we need to treat them like it.”
An FTO designation by the State Department — which has so far been primarily applied to Islamic terrorist groups that pose a significant threat to American security — would trigger U.S. authorization to freeze financial assets, prohibit entry into the country and prosecute members for supporting terrorism. Supporters of such an action argue it would better enable American capabilities against cartel organizations that have wreaked havoc along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Trump’s large-scale deportation operation and hawkish immigration enforcement agenda has so far proven successful in lowering encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, organized crime syndicates remain an enormous threat on the southern border, enriched by the unprecedented immigration crisis that was sparked under the Biden administration.
Cartels pull in roughly $14 million per day by smuggling migrants, illicit drugs and other contraband across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Roy’s office.
As recently as Monday, Border Patrol agents were shot while on patrol in Fronton, Texas, according to Customs and Border Protection. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is heavily involved in securing the Texas-Mexican border, confirmed those shots came from cartel members.
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Mexico has apparently lost control of many of the cartels. They have become a threat to Texas border communities. That was not the case when I lived 18 miles from the border when I was in high school. Back then, we often went shopping in the markets or ate at Mexican restaurants across the border.
Biden's open borders policy has benefited the cartels and other terrorist organizations. His policies never made any sense to border residents. Texas law enforcement now has its own border patrols.
See also:
Criminal activity in the area along the US-Mexico border includes gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, sexual assault
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