"The drug cartels are waging war on America - and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels. The drug cartels and their allies in the Biden administration have the blood of countless millions on their hands. Millions and millions of families and people are being destroyed. When I am back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again," Trump said in a video message.
A statement accompanying the video said Trump will use a counter-terrorism approach.
"As Joe Biden prepares to make his first-ever trip to the southern border that he deliberately erased, President Trump announced that when he is president again, it will be the official policy of the United States to take down the drug cartels just as we took down ISIS [Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia]," the statement said.
Transnational criminal organizations have become experts at avoiding law enforcement interdiction and facilitating drug smuggling operations at the US border. In Fiscal Year 2021, US border officials seized 221,000 pounds of drugs – a nearly 40% increase over Fiscal Year 2019.
Earlier, President Joe Biden said he will visit El Paso, Texas on Sunday in his first trip to the southern border since taking office after the White House released a plan to alleviate the immigration crisis.
The White House said the new measures include allowing up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti each month, in addition to 20,000 from other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2023 through 2024.
The United States has seen two consecutive record breaking years of illegal crossings into its territory since Biden assumed office in January 2021. Well over two million illegal crossings into the United States were recorded in fiscal year 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection data.