¿Can Ron DeSantis Send Soldiers to Mexico?

¿Can Ron DeSantis send soldiers to Mexico to combat drug trafficking? The question arises after the Florida governor asserted it.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reiterated his promise on Saturday, August 26th, to send American special forces to Mexico.
The goal is to confront drug cartels if he is elected president, and he said, “We will take action.”

During the “Never Back Down” bus tour in Iowa, the Republican presidential hopeful reaffirmed his commitment against trafficking.
“It’s humiliating to see the cartels having that kind of control. They are effectively invading our country and killing our people.”
DeSantis highlighted the issue during the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night.

When asked if he would support sending Special Forces to Mexico, DeSantis responded clearly, “Yes, and I will do it on the first day.”

“The President of the United States has to use all available powers as Commander-in-Chief to protect our country and its people. So, when they cross over, yes, we will use lethal force, yes, we reserve the right to operate,” he asserted on Wednesday.

DeSantis is not the only Republican calling for military action against drug cartels.

However, while experts acknowledged the frustration with the cartels in Mexico and their impact on Americans, they warned that undertaking military actions on the soil of the southern U.S. neighbor could trigger a diplomatic crisis.

When questioned about taking such measures on another country’s soil, DeSantis defended the idea on Saturday, arguing that the cartels bring “death and destruction” to the United States.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Director of the Brookings Institution’s Non-State Armed Actors Initiative, explained that designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would allow for “lethal actions,” though that “doesn’t eliminate the diplomatic controversy and outrage in Mexico that any Mexican government would have.”

Such a designation could have “significant implications for trade,” Felbab-Brown said.

Ezra Cohen, a Hudson Institute fellow who served as Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Trump administration, stated that a president would “almost certainly” need to notify Congress after taking such action.