State Department set to designate cartels as terrorist groups for 'total elimination,' angering Mexican president

Border czar Thomas Homan discussed recent cartel threats against U.S. Border Patrol agents and U.S. military personnel with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck last week, noting that he anticipates that "there will be violence on the border."

Homan further indicated that President Donald Trump is prepared to both "rain hell down" on the cartels and "wipe them off the face of the earth."

The State Department is now taking steps to streamline the annihilation process.

According to the New York Times, the State Department is planning to designate over six cartels and criminal groups with links to Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations.

'The Cartels' activities threaten the safety of the American people.'

Six unnamed sources familiar with the imminent decision told the Times that in addition to Tren de Aragua and MS-13, the Trump administration plans to designate six Mexican cartels as FTOs: the Cartel del Golfo, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Michoacán family, the Northeast Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel.

The planned designations are in accordance with an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office.

"The Cartels' activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere," wrote Trump. "Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States."

Trump underscored that it is now the "policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures."

When a secretary of state ultimately makes an FTO designation, Congress must be notified of his intent and given seven days to review the designation. Apparently, Secretary Marco Rubio has already done so.

Unless there is a successful effort in Congress to block the FTO designation of these groups responsible for mass murder, kidnappings, assassinations, and trafficking deadly substances into the homeland, notice of the designation will be published in the Federal Register.

Once in effect, it will be unlawful for any person in the U.S. or subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. to knowingly provide "material support or resources" to the terrorist organizations. That includes financial services, lodging, identification, and transportation.

The Mexican government, the New York Times, and Soros-backed liberal think tank Brennan Center are among the radical outfits that have taken issue with the Trump administration's plan.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened to expand her lawsuit against American gun manufacturers and vendors if the State Department went through with the designations, reported CBS News.

Sheinbaum noted specifically Mexo would introduce another allegation accusing gunmakers of "complicity" with terrorist organizations.

Blaze News previously reported that the New York Times complained that terrorist designations for the cartels culpable for the deaths of over 200 Americans a day might lead to American companies having to wean off Mexican labor; a loss to the Mexican economy in the form of reduced remittances; and unilateral American military strikes on terrorists and terrorist facilities.

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the managing director of the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program, alternatively suggested that the designations were "counterproductive" because they might negatively impact asylum seekers who give money to the cartels, NGOs that service illegal alien communities, and American drug addicts and pushers.

To the likely chagrin of Levinson-Waldman and the Times, the Trump administration is unlikely to give mass-killers a pass in order to protect the Mexican economy and keep fentanyl dealers out of prison.

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