Sen. Lindsey Graham to pitch bill sending military after Mexico cartels

​Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he will introduce a bill laying the groundwork ​for President Biden to use US military force against Mexican drug cartels.

Graham (R-SC) was reacting to the kidnapping of four Americans in the border city of Matamoros — two of whom were found dead Tuesday — and the continued proliferation of dangerous drugs, including highly lethal fentanyl, brought into the United States by the cartels.

“This administration has done nothing about it,” Graham told Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

“I’m going to introduce legislation, Jesse, to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under US law and set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from being poisoned by things coming out of Mexico,” he added.

Graham said he agrees with former Attorney General Bill Barr, who wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that the US should designate the cartels as terrorist groups and confront them the same way past administrations confronted ISIS in the Middle East.

“I would follow Bill Barr’s advice and get tough on Mexico,” Graham said.

“It’s not just the hostages. Number one, I’d do everything I could to get them back. I’d do what [former President Donald] Trump did. I’d put Mexico on notice. ‘If you continue to give safe haven to fentanyl drug dealers, then you’re an enemy of the United States,’” he added.

Graham added that he would warn Mexico “to clean up your act” or “we’re going to clean it up for you.”

Also appearing on Watters’ show, Barr said the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is at the mercy of the cartels.

“The Mexican government is being held hostage by tens of thousands of paramilitary members of terrorist organizations that effectively control Mexico. It’s pretty close at this stage to a failed narco-state. They can use violence and oceans of cash to corrupt the government. The government has no will, and it doesn’t have the ability to deal with the cartels,” Barr told Watters.

Barr went on to urge Obrador to “stand aside” and let the US take on the cartels if he doesn’t want to do so.

“[W]e have to methodically dismantle these groups. And we have to tell the Mexicans they’re either coming along with us for the ride or step aside, we’re going to do it by ourselves,” Barr said.

T​he four Americans from South Carolina were abducted by a group of gunmen wearing bulletproof vests last Friday, moments after they crossed into Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas — an area controlled by the cartels. 

The foursome — identified as Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams ​– were believed taken in a case of mistaken identity.