Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants the Biden Administration to classify Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and one expert says that's a terrible idea.
Gary Hale, nonresident fellow in drug policy and Mexico studies at the Baker Institute at Rice University, says that designation turns those criminal organizations into military targets, and that would give US troops the green light to kill cartel members.
"It is different from murder, which is a criminal offense. Killing on the military battlefield is legal," she says.
Hale says the Governor is frustrated as waves of migrants come to the Texas border, straining our resources. Cartels are making money bringing them here.
"This is the wrong response to that problem. The issue of migration and other activities that are conducted by organized crimes, or cartels, is a law enforcement issue. It's not a military action to be taken," she says.
In his letter, Abbott wrote "In November 2019, cartel gunmen fatally ambushed nine U.S. citizens, all women and children." Abbott wrote to Biden, invoking that and other brutal attacks to justify the designation. He also wrote :To take a few examples from the past year: a U.S. citizen held hostage by the Sinaloa Cartel was recently rescued; heavily armed members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel attempted to assassinate Mexico City’s chief of police; and a journalist was beheaded for his coverage of the cartels."
All of those things happened before Biden was President. Abbott never publicly asked president Trump to designate cartels are terror organization.
Hale adds this move would be an affront to the Mexican government and could complicate our relationship with our largest trading partner.