Rep. Chip Roy, who introduced legislation in March to ask the State Department to designate specific Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, said Tuesday it's time for the United States to take action.
"I introduced legislation to ask the State Department to consider designating specific cartels, not all generic cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations," the Texas Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"We did that along with Congressman Mark Green from Tennessee. We did that because we think it's important to give our government tools to take them out, to be able to target anybody providing material support to terrorists."
Such steps would include freezing assets and stopping individuals from coming into the United States, said Roy. Most importantly, he added, taking action would give a "big signal that we will take them out."
Roy said President Donald Trump supported his legislation early on, and he is grateful that Trump called for the terrorism designation two weeks ago.
"He is serious about border security, and he understands that to have a vibrant Western Hemisphere with a free flow of goods and services you have to take out these horrible organizations," said Roy.
Roy on Tuesday also said he announced his re-election campaign Monday night and will have to file officially in a week.
"I have been in office 11 months serving the great people of Texas 21," Roy said. "We have to take on the swamp. We are seeing what happens when Washington fights back at a president who dares challenge it. We need more people in Washington willing to challenge the status quo, make sure our men and women have a mission to carry it out, and secure the border of the United States. They want this. They don't want impeachment folly. They want people to do the work that they are asked to do."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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