President holds off on labeling Mexican drug cartels as terror groups

President Trump will hold off on officially designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations while he works with the Mexican president Andres Manuel "to deal decisively" with the issue.

Reportedly, critics claim the delay could hurt trade between the U.S. and Mexico.

Todd Bensman with Centers for Immigration Studies said increasing the number of Mexican cartel terrorists could overburden and possibly break the government's system and leave the US vulnerable to Islamists. The delay could impact the war on Jihadist terrorism.

Mexican drug cartels are currently classified as drug trafficking organizations, rather than foreign terrorist organizations (FTO).

"The FTO designation would allow us to bar from entry people who are on Mexican cartel terrorist watch list and those who are in the country already,we could deport them," said Bensman.

He said designating Mexican cartels as terrorists would give the American homeland security enterprise really powerful tools.

"Mainly we could seize assets, freeze assets, stop banking, money transfers, or really impact their financial infrastructure," said Bensman.

Monetary profit is the driving force of drug cartels, where political motive is the goal of terror groups like ISIS.

He said the US government could add Mexican drug cartel leadership to watch lists, since the cartels are growing globally.