Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Wednesday designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and instructing the Texas Department of Public Safety to take immediate action to keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis.

At a roundtable discussion and press conference in Midland, the Governor also sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris requesting federal terrorist classifications for the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as well as other cartels producing and distributing deadly fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is a clandestine killer, and Texans are falling victim to the Mexican cartels that are producing it,” Abbott stated in the press release. “Cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way. In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in the past year than all terrorist attacks across the globe in the past 100 years. In order to save our country, particularly our next generation, we must do more to get fentanyl off our streets.”