Former Department of Homeland Security senior adviser Chuck Marino on Monday warned that President Donald Trump reportedly ordering U.S. troops to use military force against drug cartels would be effective at stopping their business.
Trump covertly signed an order targeting cartels that his administration has classified as foreign terrorist organizations, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation. Marino said on “NewsNation Now” that he believed the strategy would successfully push cartels “into hiding,” thereby preventing them from operating. (RELATED: Pentagon Gearing Up To Provide 20,000 Troops For Immigration Clampdown)
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“I think with the designation of the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, as you indicated, the use of the military is on the table. We’re seeing a lot of other means being put into place to kind of crack down on the cartels,” Marino said. “And the next logical step now is to treat them as we do other terrorist organizations, and that is to go after the leadership and to disrupt the supply chain of not only human trafficking, but also the drug and weapons trafficking that is going on.”
“I think it will work because it’ll serve as a disruption, it’ll serve as a deterrent, it’ll force those cartels to go into hiding, and when they’re in hiding, they’re not able to do work,” he continued.
However, Marino noted more action was necessary.
“Now, this is just one approach. We also have a very big China problem with respect to the cartels. They are way too close,” he said. “We know that this is the case when it comes to the fentanyl deaths in the United States. China provides all the synthetics. And we need to do more to disrupt that supply chain. So going after the cartels solely, it’s the right move, but it won’t be the end-all.”
Pentagon officials have begun forming strategies for the military to target the Latin American criminal networks responsible for flooding the U.S. with deadly illicit drugs, the NYT’s sources said.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz explained the legal authority that Trump had to combat cartels after he signed the executive order on Jan. 20 labeling them as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
“We know that the framers of the Constitution intended Congress to declare war,” Dershowitz said. “But you know, since the end the second World War, we’ve been involved in so many wars that have never been declared, and so, of course, the president could send in troops to fight against foreign terrorist organizations, and they’ve done that of course with Taliban and others.”
During a Jan. 20 Oval Office presser while the president was signing executive orders, Trump was asked if he would consider “ordering U.S. Special Forces into Mexico to take them out.”
“Could happen,” Trump answered. “Stranger things have happened.”
The president also confirmed in May that he had offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico to fight cartels.
“The cartels are trying to destroy our country,” Trump said. “They’re evil!”
“The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight,” he added.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at the time that she flatly rejected Trump’s proposal. She also told the NYT on Friday that she was against Trump sending in troops.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” she said. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
“It is not part of any agreement, far from it,” she added. “When it has been brought up, we have always said no.”
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