( CNN ) -- Should Mexican drug cartels be considered terrorist organizations ? They murder , plot , kidnap , and dismember bodies . They 're also responsible for shootouts , explosions , fires and other atrocities . U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul , R-Texas , the chairman of the Homeland Security Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee , says they should . McCaul has introduced a bill that would add Mexico 's six dominant cartels to the State Department 's foreign terrorist organizations list . The criminal organizations included in the bill are the Arellano Felix organization , Los Zetas , Beltran Leyva , Familia Michoacana , Sinaloa Cartel , and the Gulf Cartel/New Federation . If the bill is approved , it would allow law enforcement agencies to have increased powers to limit cartels ' financial property and travel interests and impose harsher punishments on anyone who provides material support to cartels . In announcing his bill , McCaul said that `` the [ Mexican ] cartels use violence to gain political and economic influence . They have taken control of much of northern Mexico and spillover crime has resulted in the abandonment of property and loss of security on the U.S. side of the border . '' Read more about Mexican drug cartel violence . But the bill has ruffled some feathers in the Mexican government . After the Dallas Morning News supported it on a recent editorial , Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan fired back in a letter to the newspaper 's editor . In the letter , Sarukhan says that `` if you label these organizations as terrorist , you will have to start calling drug consumers in the U.S. 'financiers of terrorist organizations ' and gun dealers 'providers of material support to terrorists . ' '' `` Otherwise , '' the ambassador wrote , `` you really sound as if you want to have your cake and eat it too . '' At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on March 16 , FBI Director Robert Mueller expressed concern about the danger posed by the cartels . `` The extreme violence across our Southwest border continues to impact the United States as we saw the murders last March of American consulate workers in Juarez , Mexico and the shooting last month of two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Mexico , '' Mueller said . Consular employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband Arthur Redelfs were shot and killed in Juarez , Mexico by gangs affiliated with a drug cartel , according to Mexican authorities . ICE agent Jaime Zapata was killed and another agent injured in February when they were ambushed on a highway in central Mexico . It has not been clarified if this was a case of mistaken identity or if criminals targeted the agents traveling from the northern Mexican city of Monterrey to Mexico City , where they were based . The concern about Mexican drug cartels has also been expressed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano . At a U.S. Senate Committee hearing on March 9 , Napolitano said that the U.S. government remains `` very concerned about drug cartel violence in Mexico and we must vigorously guard against potential spillover effects into the United States . '' Mexican officials have repeatedly said that drug cartels are neither an insurgency nor terrorist organizations because their purpose is neither to destabilize the government nor promote a political ideology . Their level of cruelty is unprecedented , but they do n't hate a particular group . Their only motive , Mexican authorities say , is hard , cold cash .
Texas governor wants cartels declared terrorist organizations . Ambassador says if so , U.S. drug dealers should be treated as ` ` financiers '' American officials are concerned about violence occurring across border . Mexican officials say cartels are not insurgent or political .