In response to the killing of an elderly South Texas rancher and U.S. citizen by a suspected cartel explosive, the Trump administration is promising to continue being “ruthlessly aggressive” in responding to cartel threats to Americans.
After 74-year-old U.S. citizen Antonio Céspedes Saldierna was killed in the blast, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told Fox News Digital that the administration will be relentless in working to fully secure the border.
He said that President Donald Trump’s recent designation of eight cartels – including MS-13, Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua and several Mexican cartels – as foreign terrorist organizations, “makes clear his intention to treat violent cartel members exactly as they should be treated – as terrorists.”
Hughes did not offer any specifics on whether the administration is considering a military response to the suspected cartel killing but noted that the “administration has proven to be ruthlessly aggressive in pursuing criminal gangs that threaten our homeland.”
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He said that “President Trump will stop at nothing to secure our border, protect our communities, and dismantle terrorist organizations.”
As reported by local outlet KRGV-TV on Tuesday, Saldierna was driving in his truck about two hours south of the border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas when he drove over an IED which exploded, taking his life.
His death comes after weeks of growing concerns among border leaders about an increase in cartel violence and activity just south of the U.S. border.
On Jan. 27, U.S. Border Patrol agents took fire from cartel members near Fronton, Texas.
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In early February, footage obtained by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s office revealed the cartel also has drone capabilities and the capacity to drop airborne missiles on targets on the ground.
After Saldierna’s killing, Roy called for the U.S. to finally “take the fight to the cartels.”
“The results of Biden’s pathetic border policies have now culminated in the death of a Texas rancher driving to his ranch in Mexico through a cartel-planted IED – an explosive device commonly used by terrorist organizations in the Middle East,” Roy told Fox News Digital. “This savage display of violence is further evidence that these cartels must be treated as the terrorists that they are.”
Roy said Congress must act now to solidify the Trump administration’s designation of cartels and other migrant criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations.
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“President Trump issued an Executive Order to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since 2019, I have introduced legislation to designate these lawless groups as FTO,” he said. “Now is the time to codify President Trump’s EO to take the fight to the cartels and wipe them out once and for all.”
Stressing the urgency of responding to the persisting cartel violence at the border, Mayra Flores, a former Republican congresswoman from South Texas, told Fox News Digital that Saldierna’s death “highlights the challenges that many face daily.”
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Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, another South Texas Republican, emphasized ICE’s role in reducing the cartel’s ability to inflict violence on Americans. She told Fox News Digital she would “work with the Trump Administration to support the Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol and ICE Agents as they work to arrest every criminal and cartel member in our country and secure our border.”
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district covers vast portions of the Southern border, also commented on the deaths, telling Fox News Digital that “cartels have no regard for our laws, let alone the sanctity of life.”
Gonzales said that he “fully” supports the Trump administration designating cartels as terrorist groups, which he said, “gives our government more resources to shut down their operations.”
“They are terrorists and deserve to be designated as such,” he explained. “This tragic death in South Texas is just another example of that.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to South Texas Democrat Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez but did not receive a response by publication.
