In January 2025, the White House finally did what should have been done years ago: it designated Mexico’s brutal drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

This gives American authorities broader tools to freeze assets, gather intelligence, and dismantle these violent syndicates. And it’s an important step in the right direction. But, from where I sit in Bulgaria, I cannot help but ask: why did it take so long?

Here in Bulgaria, we know something about borders. We share one with Turkey, a gateway for migrants heading toward Europe. And yet, despite intense pressure, Bulgaria has not suffered the migrant chaos seen in parts of Western Europe or the United States.

Why? Because we made the decision — like our neighbors in Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban — to treat national borders as sacred. Not suggestions. Not political bargaining chips. But sovereign, immovable lines of defense.

The fentanyl crisis in the United States is a tragedy of epic proportions. China supplies the chemicals, but it is the Mexican cartels that manufacture and traffic the poison. Hundreds of thousands of American lives have been lost to synthetic drugs. And things would not have been this bad without the collapse of the southern border under the Biden administration.

Bulgaria and Hungary chose a different path. We do not allow open borders. We do not allow foreign-funded NGOs to dictate our immigration policy. We do not apologize for protecting our own people.

The results speak for themselves: we have little to no illegal immigration. No fentanyl crisis. No foreign cartel operations are taking root on our soil.

That is not by accident. It is by design.

Today’s cartels are not just drug dealers. They are militarized, globally networked terrorist syndicates. Their power is expanding because America’s border is collapsing. When the United States fails to defend itself, it sends a dangerous signal not just to cartels but to bad actors around the world.

When the Sinaloa Cartel launched a siege in the Mexican city of Culiacán after the arrest of El Chapo’s son, it looked less like a criminal response and more like a military operation. Can this happen in the United States? From our perspective in Eastern Europe, the answer is yes — if nothing changes.

The cartels already operate in all 50 states. They traffic in drugs, weapons, and human lives. And they do so while millions of illegal immigrants cross the southern border. In contrast, here in Bulgaria, illegal border crossings are rare and heavily punished.

We know that a sovereign nation cannot exist without a secure border. We’ve lived through communist tyranny, open-border chaos in the Balkans, and waves of migration from the Middle East. These are not abstract policy issues for us. They are matters of national survival.

If the United States wants to stop the fentanyl epidemic, secure the border. If you want to dismantle cartel networks, secure the border. If you want to preserve your way of life, secure the border.

President Donald Trump put America on that path during his first term. The Remain in Mexico policy, border wall construction, and strict enforcement were making a difference. But President Joe Biden reversed that progress. And now, the chaos is global.

This is not just an American problem anymore. The drugs, the human trafficking, the terrorism — it’s spreading all across the Western world. Europe is already starting to see signs of fentanyl’s arrival. And make no mistake, if the cartels succeed in producing their own precursors and cutting out China, the crisis will escalate faster and deadlier than ever before.

The United States should look east and learn some lessons from allies like Bulgaria and Hungary. We have proven that strong borders and strong policies work. We are not perfect, but we are secure.

If politicians in Washington truly want to protect the American people, they must stop listening to the globalist elite and start listening to those of us who have fought for our sovereignty and won. We believe President Trump is taking the necessary actions to secure the border.

Otherwise, the next cartel siege will not happen in Mexico. It will happen in Texas. Or Arizona. Or Ohio.

And when it does, Americans will remember who allowed the gates to stay wide open.

George Harizanov is the CEO of the Institute for Right-Wing Policies in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.