President Trump Declares U.S. Will Designate Mexican Drug Cartels As Terrorists

President Trump's announcement follows the gruesome murders of a family of American mothers and their young children at the hands of a Mexican drug cartel around 3 weeks ago, and President Trump's subsequent offer to help Mexico's president fight the country's cartels - an offer which was turned down.

Trump has declared war on drug cartels, and he's keeping his vow!

What do you think?

Is President Trump making the right move?

The New York Times has more to say:

President Trump said in an interview posted online Tuesday that he planned to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, owing to what he said was the high number of Americans killed by their activities. 

The comments, which were made in an interview with the former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and posted to his personal website, represent a shift in United States policy that the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, told reporters on Monday he did not believe would happen.

“I will be designating the cartels,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. “I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process.”

Deadly violence by drug cartels in Mexico gained new attention in the United States in recent weeks after the killing of six children and their three mothers, all dual Mexican and American citizens, who were part of a fundamentalist Mormon community in the north of the country. 

After that ambush, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that the time had come “for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth.”

In the interview posted online Tuesday, Mr. Trump declined to say what measures he would consider taking once the cartels had been designated as terrorist organizations. When Mr. O’Reilly asked if drone strikes in Mexico were a possibility, the president replied, “I don’t want to say what I am going to do, but they will be designated.”

“Look, we are losing 100,000 people a year to what is happening and what is coming through from on Mexico,” the president said, without elaborating. “They have unlimited money, the people, the cartels, because they have a lot of money, because it is drug money and human trafficking money.”

Reuters added:

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups for their role in trafficking narcotics and people, prompting a speedy request for talks by Mexico.

“They will be designated ... I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process,” Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday with conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly.

Soon afterwards, Mexico’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it would quickly seek a high-level meeting with U.S. State Department officials to address the legal designation as well as the flow of arms and money to organized crime. 

“The foreign minister will establish contact with his counterpart, Michael R. Pompeo, in order to discuss this very important issue for the bilateral agenda,” the ministry said. 

Once a particular group is designated as a terrorist organization, under U.S. law it is illegal for people in the United States to knowingly offer support and its members cannot enter the country and may be deported.