Rival drug cartels open fire on each other with .50 cal weapons just miles from Texas border

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Mexican drug cartels open fire on each other near Texas border

Mexican drug cartels open fire on each other near Texas border

Members of two rival Mexican drug cartels opened fire on each other just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, using .50 cal machine guns mounted on trucks to claim dominance over a popular smuggling route.

The footage, provided to Fox by the Texas Department of Public Safety, shows at least four vehicles engaged in a gunfight on a road near Ciudad Miguel Aleman, a Mexican border city directly across the border from Roma, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. DPS identified the rival groups as the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel, adding that at least one cartel had a thermal imaging drone monitoring the carnage from above.

The battle comes as the flow of drugs and human smuggling continues to overwhelm the U.S. border. Officials in border states have pushed for new ways to stem the flow and combat the cartels by providing logistical support.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared Mexican drug cartels to be terrorist organizations in September, granting law enforcement new authorities to combat the groups. Abbott urged President Biden to do the same during an appearance on Fox News last week.

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Rival drug cartels exchange gunfire in Mexico. (Fox News)

President. Biden has yet to visit the U.S. southern border during his presidency. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"A couple of weeks ago, I declared the cartels terrorist organizations," Abbott told host Jesse Watters. "If the President did that, it triggers a federal law that would allow him to go into those bank accounts and get those billions of dollars that the cartels are making off of this."

The request is only Abbott's latest appeal to the Biden administration for assistance at the border. Both he and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have taken to bussing migrants from border towns to Washington, D.C., New York City and other Democratic strongholds in an effort to get Biden to take the issue seriously.

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Mayor Eric Adams has blasted Abbott for the bussing program, which the Texas governor argues is necessary due to overflow at border towns.

Migrants leave for a shelter from the Port Authority bus terminal in New York City on Sept. 27, 2022. New York City will set up and open transitory humanitarian emergency response and relief centers in the coming weeks to handle the influx of migrants transported from Texas and other border states, announced New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently.  (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images)

"I already called all my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their votes," Adams said during a press conference in late September. "And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, we have to get him out of office."

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Abbott argues that NYC, a proud sanctuary city, should be capable of housing the border-crossers.

"In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city," Abbott said in August.