Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that in the midst of the growing national fentanyl overdose crisis, Texans and Americans are falling victim to the Mexican cartels that are producing it.
On Sept. 21, Abbott issued an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and called for the Biden administration to do the same.
“Fentanyl is a clandestine killer, and Texans are falling victim to the Mexican cartels that are producing it,” Abbott said upon issuing his executive order. “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.”
Following the order, the governor instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and law enforcement to identify Texas gangs who support the operation of the Mexican drug cartels and seize their assets. Thousands of Texans have been killed as the cartels have flooded the country with deadly fentanyl, according to a press release.
The Department of Justice describes the South Texas border area as "a principal drug smuggling corridor" between Mexico and the U.S.
A recent exposé by The Wall Street Journal describes how the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have come to "dominate" the supply of deadly fentanyl to the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that overdoses nationwide reached record-breaking levels in 2021, nearing 108,000 total overdose deaths, out of which more than 71,000 were fentanyl-related.
Abbott has also sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking that federal terrorist classifications be placed on the Mexican drug cartels.
"Mexican drug cartels terrorize the United States and its citizens every day ... it is necessary, now more than ever, for you to designate the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and any similarly situated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," Abbott wrote in the letter. "This move would help us fight back against these terrorists and disrupt their deadly attacks on America."
In his letter, Abbott cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics showing that since 2021, monthly fentanyl deaths have continued to climb as over 75,000 Americans have died from fentanyl-related drug overdoses between February 2021 and February 2022.
Earlier this month, Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Greg Sindelar delivered a speech during the American Society of Mexico's Binational Convention in Mexico City highlighting the emergency at the southern border, calling for both the Texas and U.S. governments to meet these threats from the cartels and their allies by declaring an "invasion underway" and officially designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
Sindelar also referenced the “heartbreaking” human toll of over 1,000 fatalities on the southern border since January of 2021, where “a massive wave of migration” from Mexico is met by the criminal exploitation apparatus of the Mexican cartel networks which monetize and commoditize hopeful migrants as “disposable parts of a money-making machine.”
Sindelar argued that cartels effectively maintain “complete control over the southern side of the border” and are involved in even more insidious operations than human and drug smuggling. “The cartels take more than money from women and girls. Some are sold into the sex trade or into modern day slavery,” he said. “Rape, assault, and sexual slavery are an everyday fact of life for the women and children who attempt to cross. And there is one root cause: The cartels have complete control over the southern side of the border.”