AUSTIN — Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation commends President Trump on signing an executive order officially designating the Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Over the last decade, the Mexican cartels have unleashed a degree of violence and attained a degree of political influence in Mexico sufficient to compel policymakers in the U.S. to consider new and more aggressive strategies to combat them. TPPF stands firmly behind the next administration’s efforts to disrupt and dismantle all cartel operations.
TPPF published groundbreaking research on designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations in March of 2023. Today, TPPF and America First Policy Institute released a fact sheet on the authorities granted to the U.S. government by an FTO designation.
“For decades the cartels have embedded themselves in every American community, fueling the drug crisis, facilitating human trafficking, and profiting off the suffering of human beings,” said TPPF CEO Greg Sindelar. “It is long past time that we respond to Mexican cartels for who they are—terrorists threatening regional stability and the American way of life. The United States will now be empowered to not just respond, but to win.”
Chief Transformation Officer Joshua Treviño added, “The enhanced and expanded powers afforded by a Foreign-Terror Organization designation for Mexican cartels are essential to their defeat. The designation itself is well earned by the cartels, which have sown death and terror for too long in American communities, American streets, and American homes. We congratulate the Trump Administration for keeping its promise, and fighting back in America’s defense. Make no mistake: with this FTO designation, Mexico’s cartels — and their friends and allies in Mexico’s government — are on notice.”
For TPPF and AFPI’s one-pager on authorities granted by FTO designations, click here.
For TPPF’s research paper on designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, click here.
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