McCarthy Endorses Designating Cartels as Terrorists, Using Military at Southern Border

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is in favor of assigning the status of terrorist organizations to drug cartels and stationing at least “some” military personnel at the border to strengthen efforts against these cartels.

McCarthy talked about the ways to counter the cartel in an interview with Breitbart News last month, which the publication released on Wednesday. McCarthy spoke with Breitbart News about border safety concerns following the kidnapping of four US citizens, two of whom were killed in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

When asked by Breitbart News host Matthew Boyle about the proposal to classify cartel groups as foreign terrorist organizations, the House speaker answered, “I think you have to designate them.”

“You look what has gone on. These cartels are making billions of dollars human trafficking, right?” McCarthy added. “But they’re using weapons; they’re shooting. We’ve watched in broad daylight what they would do with no respect for life or for Americans.”

Boyle then presented the idea of deploying US military forces against the cartel, noting that former President Donald Trump had already supported the idea of using the military to combat the cartels “just as we took down ISIS and the ISIS caliphate.”

“I’ve met with the border agents many times. I think we’re going to have to embed some military to allow that technology to help secure it,” McCarthy told Boyle.

During his presidency, the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops at the border, who provided aviation, engineering, surveillance, communications, vehicle maintenance, and logistical support. National Guard troop deployments have continued at the border since then. It is unclear how the responsibilities of US military personnel at the southern border would shift under McCarthy’s proposed embedding plan. NTD News reached out to McCarthy’s office for a response but did not receive one before publishing this article.

Congressional Action

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced legislation in January that required authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) to permit the US military to target Mexican drug cartels that facilitate drug trafficking into the United States.

Upon presenting the AUMF legislation, which would put the US at war with the cartels by authorizing the use of military force against them, Crenshaw, a retired US Navy SEAL, said, “The cartels are at war with us—poisoning more than 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year, creating a crisis at our border, and turning Mexico into a failed narco-state. It’s time we directly target them. We cannot allow heavily armed and deadly cartels to destabilize Mexico and import people and drugs into the United States. We m