By Antonio Graceffo
Officially recognizing narcotrafficking as a national security threat and narcotraffickers as international terrorist organizations would allow the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to coordinate securing the U.S. southern border and arresting those who enable narcotrafficking.
In his State of the Union address delivered on Feb. 7, President Joe Biden identified the opioid crisis as a national security threat, calling for greater border security. Narcotrafficking is a truly international threat as China provides precursor chemicals to Mexican drug cartels, who manufacture the drugs and bring them up through the southern border along with gang members, terrorists, and prostitutes. The president appears to be aware of the problem but has not taken concrete steps to solve it.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testified to Congress on July 7, 2022, that the administration’s weak border policies have forced his organization to release hundreds of thousands of migrants who were most likely inadmissible into the United States. Among the administration’s destructive policies was the removal of pathways for deportation and a decrease in the Border Patrol’s detention capacity.
On Feb. 8, the attorneys general of 21 states issued a statement demanding that Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Designating narcotraffickers as terrorists would be consistent with recognizing the problem as a national security threat.
A 2009 Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) report called illicit drugs a threat to U.S. national security. DTIC observed that the threat is transnational in nature and that it destabilizes governments while it supports terrorists and organized crime worldwide. Additionally, DTIC went on to say that enemies of the United States, including China and Russia, exploit the drug trade to damage the United States and reduce its global influence. In addition to providing cartels with restricted chemicals, China is helping cartels launder their illicit money, and Russian transnational crime organizations are dealing drugs in the United States.
Ninety percent of the cocaine entering the United States enters the southern border. Mexico is also the source of a significant amount of marijuana, methamphetamine, and now fentanyl.
The largest cartels are Jalisco Nuevo Generacion and the Sinaloa Cartel, which distribute illegal drugs through three major transnational criminal organizations: Los Zetas, Gulf Cartel, and Juarez Cartel. Apart from smuggling drugs into the United States, these organizations commit violent crimes in Mexico, including killing politicians and police officers. Given the mayhem they wreak on both sides of the border, it would seem prudent to deny them entry into the United States. For this reason, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said that the president’s weak immigration policies are emboldening the “cartels who are bringing in vast amounts of deadly fentanyl, as well as violence, into the country—putting American lives at risk.”
Declaring the cartels as terrorist organizations gives state and federal agencies the authority to freeze the assets of narcotraffickers, deny entry to cartel members, stiffen punishments, and convict those who aid narcotrafficking.
Over the past two years, the border patrol has set records for the seizures of narcotics as well as the arrest of illegal border crossers and suspected terrorists. The February 2023 House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing found that “President Biden and his administration’s policies created the worst border crisis in American history.” By removing deterrents such as punishment for illegal entry into the United States, the Biden administration has encouraged illegal immigration and human trafficking. Additionally, by providing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the administration has increased the attractiveness of sneaking across the border. As the people entering the country illegally are often poor and desperate, cartels can easily exploit them as drug mules or co-opt them into gangs or prostitution.
