Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would designate several Mexican drug cartels operating in the United States as foreign terrorist organizations.
Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Rick Scott (R-FL) announced the introduction of the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act, which would designate several leading Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, expanding the ways in which the U.S. could combat them.
“The illicit drugs and other deadly activities being carried out by cartels are killing Americans at record rates. Since Joe Biden and the Democrats continue to turn a blind eye, we are going to do something about it by designating the drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” Marshall said in a press release on Wednesday. “As these cartels continue to invade our porous southern border in an increasingly militarized approach, this designation is needed to ramp up our efforts to combat them. We will not rest in our fight to stop fentanyl’s terrible scourge wreaking havoc in Kansas and across the U.S.”
“Fentanyl is a leading cause of death among young people in the United States — and those who knowingly distribute the highly lethal drug are declaring war on Americans. For far too long, people have suffered addiction and death because of this evil drug that is pouring across Joe Biden’s open southern border; and to put an end to this crisis, these cartels must be held accountable and classified as terrorists. I am proud to join Senator Marshall in standing up against this crisis and urge this commonsense legislation pass the Senate immediately," Scott added.
