Texas Governor Signs Executive Order Designating Cartels As Terrorist Organizations
Governor Abbott issued an executive order designating cartels as a terrorist organization as a result of the fentanyl crisis and urges the Biden administration to do the same.
Photo Credit: Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott held a press conference in Midland, Texas on September 21st, 2022, where he issued an executive order that designated cartels, including Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, and similar Mexican organized crime groups as terrorist organizations.
The executive order comes as a result of the massive amounts of fentanyl that has been smuggled due to the border crisis. The trafficking of the narcotic has resulted with fentanyl overdose being the number 1 cause of death for people ages 18 through 45.
Executive Order GA42 states that Mexican drug cartels have caused over 1,600 Texans to be fatally poisoned by drugs containing fentanyl in 2021, representing an increase of more than 680 percent since 2018, with fentanyl’s death toll continuing to rise in 2022. It also states that these cartels Mexican drug cartels also smuggle humans across the Texas-Mexico border and subject them to sexual assault, human trafficking, assault, extortion, and other dehumanizing, violent, and heinous acts.
The executive order also asked for the Biden administration to also designate the Mexican organized crime groups as terrorist organizations under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act instead of only declaring a national emergency due to the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic opioids.
The signing of this executive order comes after the Customs and Border Protections data shows over 2 million illegal immigrants being encountered at the border during the 2022 fiscal year, with August seeing 203,598 encounters. Southern border sectors such as Yuma and Del Rio (mainly with the city of Eagle Pass) have seen a big increase of illegal migrant crossings in 2022 as well.