WASHINGTON â Insisting that the administration is âstanding byâ as Mexican cartels terrorize South Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has demanded that President Joe Biden add the crime groups to a list of terrorist organizations that includes al-Qaida and the Islamic State. âIn November 2019, cartel gunmen fatally ambushed nine U.S. citizens, all women and children,â Abbott wrote to Biden, invoking that and other brutal attacks to justify the designation. All of the attacks he cited took place when Donald Trump was president, and Abbott never publicly pressured Trump to designate the cartels as terrorist groups. Nor did Abbott air any complaint when Trump, under pressure from Mexico, backed down from a threat to add cartels to the foreign terrorist group list.