(The Center Square)
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Thursday called President Joe Biden ‘the chief trafficker’ in response to a White House spokesperson saying there was no need to designate Mexican cartels as organizations. Foreign Terrorists (FTO).
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “Designating these cartels as FTOs would not grant us any additional authority that we don’t really have right now. The United States has powerful sanctions authorities specifically designed to combat drug trafficking organizations and the individuals and entities that authorize them.
Jean-Pierre added: “In the past few months alone, the Treasury has announced a series of actions against cartels dangerous to public safety and we have also taken measures which further allow the Treasury to sanction foreign persons” , referring to the Treasury Department sanctioning members of the CJNG Cartel and several Mexican companies linked to it last week, and sanctioning members of the Sinaloa Cartel and Mexican companies last month.
Last month, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares led a coalition of 22 attorneys general calling on the president to designate the cartels as FTOs. Last September, Moody’s also led a coalition of 18 attorneys general calling on Biden to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. In September, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order designating the Sinaloa Cartels and CJNG as FTOs and called on the president to do the same. None received a response, until Jean-Pierre’s comments on Wednesday.
In response, Abbott tweeted Thursday, “Texas designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations last year. I have repeatedly urged Biden to do the same. Now 2 Americans have been shot and killed by cartels just across the border from Texas. It is high time for Biden to step up and call these cartels what they are: terrorists.
Abbott’s press office also confirmed that he has not heard from the president since he hand-delivered a border security plan to him in January listing five actions Biden could take to immediately secure the country. border.
Related: Drug poisoning death of 19-month-old child exposes reality of fentanyl crisis
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Moody tweeted that the president is now “trafficker in chief”, citing his failure to secure the border, allowing human and drug trafficking facilitated by Mexican cartels.
In a statement emailed to The Center Square, she said the president is “preventing Mexican drug cartels from being designated as federal terrorist organizations (which they are) [is] further proof that he is the chief trafficker.
She thanked Senior U.S. Sen. Florida Rick Scott and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, for introducing the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act, which Moody said will “get the job done that Biden refuses to do.” do – protect the American people”.
Senators introduced the bill on Wednesday to officially designate four Mexican cartels as FTOs: the Reynosa/Los Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. The bill would bar people from entering the United States who knowingly provide “material support or resources” to these cartels. It would also prohibit any foreign citizen from entering the United States who is a member of, or is officially associated with, the designated cartels or who has “engaged in terrorist activities” involving them.
“For too long, Biden’s botched border policies have prioritized criminals and cartels over legal immigration and the safety of Americans,” Scott said. “Dictators, cartels and bad guys around the world know Biden is weak appeasement with open border policies. They take full advantage of this by smuggling evil drugs like fentanyl across the southern border, poisoning our communities and killing our loved ones. Those who knowingly distribute these highly lethal drugs are declaring war on Americans and deserve to be held accountable and labeled as the terrorists they are.
Related: GOP presidential field rallies around one idea: Declare drug cartels terrorist
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who has joined the coalitions of attorneys general, told The Center Square, “The Biden administration’s response to the border crisis has been short-sighted and an abject failure — and Americans are dying in result. … President Biden needs to take stronger action to secure the border and protect Americans, and he needs to do it now.
Mexican cartels “assassinate rivals and government officials, ambush and kill Americans at the border, and engage in armed insurrection against the Mexican government,” the coalition says. “This dangerous terrorist activity occurring at our border will not diminish unless we step up our response.”
Earlier this year, Biden said his plan to deal with the fentanyl crisis involved having “more drug detection machines,” implementing greater shipment inspection to “stop pills and the powder”. [coming in through] border,” “working with couriers, like FedEx, to inspect more drug packages,” and implementing “tough penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.”
Syndicated with permission from The central square.