Abbott tells 'The Story' Biden admin 'standing by' while Texans are 'terrorized' by drug cartels

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Gov. Abbott: White House has 'nobody in charge' of southern border

Texas Republican tells the 'The Story' why Biden should label drug cartels as terrorists

The Biden administration is "standing by while people in South Texas are terrorized" by Mexican drug cartels, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told "The Story" Friday.

On Thursday, Abbott implored President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

"The cartels work internationally in Mexico as well as the United States terrorizing the people in South Texas," he told host Martha MacCallum. "The Biden administration is standing by while people in South Texas are terrorized. It could be murderers, it could be kidnappings, robberies, all kinds of crimes are taking place."

In his letter to Biden and Harris, Abbott wrote that the cartels "smuggle narcotics and weapons into the United States to fund their illegal enterprises. They force women and children into human and sex trafficking ... [and] they murder innocent people, including women and children."

ABBOTT CALLS ON BIDEN, HARRIS TO APPLY 'TERRORIST' LABEL TO MEXICAN CARTELS: REPORT

Designating cartels as foreign terror organizations "would increase the length of sentences of people arrested who are parts of terror organizations," the governor said Friday. "They would be in jail and stay in jail for a longer period of time. Number two, it would make certain people inadmissible into the United States. Hence, in the future, if ever we caught any members of these terrorist organizations coming into the United States, we would be able to arrest them for that and put them in jail for that, with longer times in jail. Third, it would allow the United States to freeze the assets of these organizations and their members [and] basically put them out of business."

Abbott then alleged that tthe White House has "nobody in charge" of operations at the southern border, "1,200 miles of which includes the state of Texas. 

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"Not the president, not the vice president, not anybody else has been on the ground taking charge of maintaining these operations. All they have done is created a complete open border where you have not only young unaccompanied minors, family units, you have men and you have terrorists that are coming across the border as well as these cartels." 

Abbott insisted that "no young child makes it across the border without the assistance of these drug cartels. The kids have wrist bands on that are color-coded based upon which gang helped smuggled them in, knowing which gang would get credit and monetary remuneration for getting them across the border. This is a treacherous situation the Biden administration is allowing to happen by their failure to step up and do anything about it."