As the migrant influx at the Texas-Mexico border has escalated, Abbott has claimed unaccompanied children and other migrants have fallen victim to drug cartels, resulting in violence, coercion and instances of human trafficking.

“As Governor of Texas, I urge you to take immediate action to combat the dangerous and deadly Mexican drug cartels,” Abbott wrote. “These cartels bring terror into our communities. They smuggle narcotics and weapons into the United States to fund their illegal enterprises. They force women and children into human and sex trafficking—enriching themselves on the misery and enslavement of immigrants. They murder innocent people, including women and children. These Mexican drug cartels are foreign terrorist organizations, and it is time for the federal government to designate them as such.”

In the letter, Abbott says drug cartels meet the three criteria for terrorist organization designation established in Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to the letter Mexican drug carters are “foreign organizations;” the cartels regularly “engage in terrorist activity;” and the “terrorist activities ‘threaten’ the security of United State nationals or the national security of the United States.”

Abbott says the designation would free up resources to fight crime at the border.

“Designating Mexican drug carters as foreign terrorist organizations will give your administration new ways to fight back. Providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization is a federal crime of extraterritorial jurisdiction, punishable in some cases by life imprisonment,” Abbott wrote. “Criminal sentences are significantly longer for drug traffickers who fund foreign terrorist organizations.”

In a news release accompanying the letter, Abbott’s office says his three previous letters to the president have gone unanswered.