As President Donald Trump begins to frame his 2024 campaign for the White House, he has promised to “wage war” on Mexican drug cartels when he is elected again.
In a video address released Thursday, Trump said he would treat the cartels in the same way he fought ISIS in his first term. He also argued that Joe Biden has been catering directly to the cartels since assuming office two years ago.
He said, “Biden’s open border policies are a deadly betrayal of our nation.”
Trump declared that Biden has chosen to side with the cartels against the interests of the United States. He vowed that when he is back in office, “it will be the policy of the United States to take down the cartels, just as we took down ISIS and the ISIS caliphate-and just as, unlike the situation we are in today, we had a very, very strong border.”
He said he would order the Pentagon to deploy special forces and cyber warfare assets to initiate “overt and covert actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations.”
President Trump was right.
We should bomb the cartel’s because they are an international criminal organization murdering our people by lacing deadly fentanyl from China in drugs they illegally sell across our border to US citizens.
Not Mexico or it’s great people, the cartels.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 28, 2022
Trump argued that the nation’s posture toward international drug lords must change because of the new distribution of power that has resulted from the ongoing crisis at the southern border. As illegal migrants are used to do the work of cartels in flooding the nation with deadly fentanyl and other drugs, Trump said direct attack is now the only reasonable option.
He compared the current disaster to a secure border that commanded respect during his administration.
“When I am back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again,” Trump said.
Trump’s announcement came at the same time Biden said he would be making his first-ever official trip to the border in his 50-year political career. Biden finally acknowledged that the federal government should expand border security measures.
As the Title 42 public health order allowing summary expulsion of illegal migrants has been reinstated temporarily by the Supreme Court, Biden has said he is modifying the federal humanitarian parole program.
Venezuelan, Haitian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan nationals seeking asylum in the U.S. will face additional legal requirements. Up to 30,000 people from those four nations will be allowed to be paroled each month into the U.S. for two years. However, they will be required to have an American financial sponsor and comply with other requirements.
