Mexico's former ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, warned in a newspaper column about applying anti-terror strategies against drug cartels.
"When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," Sarukhan wrote.
Hope noted that a terror-group designation would only encourage those who want to militarise the US-Mexico border or build a wall along it, something Mexico has hotly opposed.
"This reinforces and gives ammunition to those who want to describe Mexico as a failed state, and describe the border as a security risk, and want to treat narcoterrorism and immigrations as twin issues," said Hope. "This is part of a broader agenda."
On a more visceral level, Mexicans reacted angrily to the potential terrorism designation Wednesday, arguing it would violate the country's sovereignty.
It didn't help that the designation was suggested by a community of dual US-Mexican nationals, the extended LeBaron and Langford families, who live in religious communities in northern Mexico.
Despite the decades-old Mexican roots of the self-described Mormon communities — and the fact that drug cartel gunmen slaughtered three women and six children from the communities in early November — some Mexican social media users described the LeBarons as traitors to Mexico.
One of the top three trending topics on Mexican Twitter accounts Wednesday was "LeBaronOutOfMexico"; another top hashtag was LeBaronTraitors".
Alex LeBaron chuckled and said, "Probably not everybody in my community expected it, but I did."
LeBaron wrote in his Twitter account, in Spanish "We are not asking for an 'invasion,' because we are already invaded by terrorist (drug) cartels in Mexican territory," adding "we demand real coordination between both countries!"
The communities, which are not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have long stressed their love of Mexico — where many were born — and note that Mexicans suffer the brunt of cartel violence.
In that sense, LeBaron wrote that the United States should do more to cooperate with Mexico to stop the flow of illegal US weapons into Mexico, and reduce US demand for illegal drugs that line the pockets of traffickers.
But he suggested that if many Mexicans were so worried about sovereignty, they should study the case of the northern city of Culiacan, where Sinaloa cartel gunmen forced the Mexican army to back down and free the captured son of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on October 17.
"Sovereignty? Go to Culiacan and see who is in charge there!" he wrote.
- AP