Trump admin promises to be 'ruthlessly aggressive' in response to suspected cartel killing of US citizen

After 74-year-old U.S. citizen Antonio Céspedes Saldierna was killed in the blast, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told Fox News Digital that the administration will be relentless in working to fully secure the border.

Hughes did not offer any specifics on whether the administration is considering a military response to the suspected cartel killing but noted that the "administration has proven to be ruthlessly aggressive in pursuing criminal gangs that threaten our homeland."

His death comes after weeks of growing concerns among border leaders about an increase in cartel violence and activity just south of the U.S. border.

After Saldierna's killing, Roy called for the U.S. to finally "take the fight to the cartels."

"The results of Biden's pathetic border policies have now culminated in the death of a Texas rancher driving to his ranch in Mexico through a cartel-planted IED - an explosive device commonly used by terrorist organizations in the Middle East," Roy told Fox News Digital. "This savage display of violence is further evidence that these cartels must be treated as the terrorists that they are."

Roy said Congress must act now to solidify the Trump administration's designation of cartels and other migrant criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

"President Trump issued an Executive Order to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since 2019, I have introduced legislation to designate these lawless groups as FTO," he said. "Now is the time to codify President Trump's EO to take the fight to the cartels and wipe them out once and for all."

Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, another South Texas Republican, emphasized ICE's role in reducing the cartel's ability to inflict violence on Americans. She told Fox News Digital she would "work with the Trump Administration to support the Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol and ICE Agents as they work to arrest every criminal and cartel member in our country and secure our border." 

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district covers vast portions of the Southern border, also commented on the deaths, telling Fox News Digital that "cartels have no regard for our laws, let alone the sanctity of life."

Gonzales said that he "fully" supports the Trump administration designating cartels as terrorist groups, which he said, "gives our government more resources to shut down their operations."

"They are terrorists and deserve to be designated as such," he explained. "This tragic death in South Texas is just another example of that."