US presidential candidates want the military to attack Mexican drug cartels. Is that legal?

As the race for the White House in 2024 ramps up, threats by Republican presidential candidates to launch military strikes on Mexican drug cartels are being taken increasingly seriously, sparking concerns on both sides of the border. Mr DeSantis told the party's presidential primary debate last week — which Mr Trump skipped — that, if elected, he would send US forces in to dismantle Mexican drug labs "on day one". The Center for Renewing America, a Trump-aligned think tank, last year issued a policy white paper arguing the US should "crush" the cartels "with full military force", but failed to elaborate on what that meant beyond saying it would go beyond special forces to "include elements of the marines, army, navy, air force and coast guard". In March, six Republican senators introduced legislation to designate nine cartel groups as "foreign terrorist organisations", a distinction the Brookings Institution's Vanda Felbab-Brown told CNN would authorise lethal action to be taken. When talk of military action surged among Republicans earlier this year, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called it "irresponsible" and said it showed "a lack of respect for our independence and sovereignty".