How Far Will the Trump Administration Go Against Mexican Drug Cartels?
President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail that he’d go after Mexico’s drug cartels, which he claimed in January “essentially run” that country. Since taking office, he has leaned on militaristic tactics to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., an approach that invites conflict—and plenty of collateral damage.
In January, when Fox News asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth whether the administration would use the military against cartels, he replied that “all options will be on the table.” In February, the State Department designated eight cartels and transnational organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs).
Those designations in and of themselves “are not exactly a declaration of war,” wrote Reason‘s Matthew Petti. An FTO designation “bans Americans—or anyone who wants to immigrate to the United States—from providing any kind of ‘material support’ to a designated terrorist group,” while an SDGT designation “allows the U.S. Treasury to seize a group’s assets.”
The “FTO and SDGT lists don’t include exemptions for free speech or humanitarian aid,” Petti noted. The designations may invite increased scrutiny of remittances to places where the targeted cartels are active. Because the cartels are involved “in mafioso-like protection rackets” throughout Mexico and “many people are forced to pay them off or be killed,” the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick argued on X, “that could count as material support to terrorism” under U.S. law.
Washington has also “stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs,” The New York Times reported in February. The surveillance program started under President Joe Biden, and the CIA “has not been authori
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