Trump Signs Executive Order Designating Cartels and Certain Gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Among the nearly hundred Executive Orders signed by newly inaugurated President Donald Trump on his first afternoon in office included an order to designate Mexican Cartels and other groups as FTOs, or Foreign Terrorist Organizations. 

This designation had been touted often during his first administration and when campaigning for both subsequent elections. Searching through Borderland Beat archives, Congress has been exploring this idea of designating the cartels as terrorists since at least 2012.

On a news post from Whitehouse.gov outlining his first priorities in office, Trump stated:

President Trump will begin the process of designating cartels, including the dangerous Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations and use the Alien Enemies Act to remove them.

Currently, many of the Mexican cartels as well as several gangs are classified as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) which open them up to law enforcement action and economic sanctions for anyone doing business with them.

The Executive Action does not specifically call out any cartels. Only providing the basis for those to be designated should they fit the criteria. Transnational Criminal Organizations are mentioned which include only the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG.

Tren de Aragua has not been deemed a cartel in the same sense as those based in Mexico and other countries, including the Cartel del Sol in Venezuela which consists of high level military and government leaders. Currently, a $25 million reward is offered for the pseudo President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro related to charges of 'narco-terrorism'. Several MS-13 gang members have been charged with aiding 'narco-terrorism' as well.

Tom Homan, the incoming Trump administration ‘Border Czar has stated that the cartels would see US military force combating them. “They have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world and Trump is committed to calling them terrorist organizations and using the full might of the United States Special Operations to take them out.”

After declaring Mexican cartels as Foreign Terror Organizations, President Trump was asked if he'd send US Special Forces to Mexico to take them out. 

"Could happen," he said. "Stranger things have happened."

Terrorist Designations Versus Kingpin Act

The Kingpin Act, already in place, targets specific individuals and companies in clearly defined, specific cases in Mexico and other countries. Criminal groups are not legally constituted entities, which makes them more difficult to identify or track.

In contrast, an FTO designation includes the criminal groups themselves into the Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC list making membership or affiliation alone justification for sanctions and prosecution. Texas named cartels as FTOs in 2022 on a statewide level.

One of the primary differences, as outlined in previous Borderland Beat articles is the ability to for military force and intervention as part of the mandate on the Global War on Terrorism which began following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Charges for those financially or materially supporting drug cartels would now be considered supporting terrorism and carry much longer sentences than simply violating sanctions imposed on the cartel members.

Cartel members are now to be considered by US authorities as terrorists. Those, whether voluntarily or forced to work with and pay protection to cartel groups would be considered to be materially supporting terrorism as opposed to possible victims.

Material Support for Terrorists

The new designations would provide prosecutors extraterritorial jurisdiction under US law to target cartel members operating abroad. It also allows prosecution of anyone providing “material support” to the cartels. Beyond those subject to violating sanctions.

This would include thousands upon thousands of those affiliated with and doing business for cartels, including drug mules, lookouts, money launderers, public officials, law enforcement officers, and even drug users. The penalties, should the support result in a fatality, could include up to Life in prison and up to a $125,000 fine.

Migrants paying cartels for passage across or even to the US border would be providing material support making them ineligible for asylum and subject to quicker deportation or possible charges.

Those paying a piso or protection, or possibly even a kidnapping ransom would knowingly be funding cartel operations and providing material support to the cartel groups and gangs being designated.

Overall, it would increase the scope of possible prosecutions beyond cartel leadership and possibly add more to terrorist watch lists.

Broader Implications for Mexican People

Designating Mexican cartels as FTOs will have political, national security and diplomatic implications. Analysts and the media have been increasingly focusing on these. But it will also have a large impact for businesses related to Mexico.

These designations will mean that any payments made by a company to cartel-affiliated organizations or individuals, and any logistical assistance provided to them, could be seen as material support of terrorist organizations.

For the last 10 years, the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico has conducted yearly surveys among its member companies on public safety. The results of the 2024 survey suggest that extorsion from organized crime is a pervasive issue in Mexico.

• 12% reported that "organized crime has taken partial control of the sales, distribution and/or pricing of their goods.”

• 45% stated that they had received extortion demands for protection payments.

• With FTO designations in place, extortion payments, even if made under duress, could be considered “material support” to terrorist organizations.

Executive Order Summary

The full Executive Order can be viewed here.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA),50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq. it is hereby ordered:

The order creates a process by which certain international cartels "The Cartels" and other organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime, with activities encompassing:

1. Convergence between themselves and a range of extra-hemispheric actors, from designated foreign-terror organizations to antagonistic foreign governments;
   
   
2. Complex adaptive systems, characteristic of entities engaged in insurgency and asymmetric warfare; and
   
   
3. infiltration into foreign governments across the Western Hemisphere.

The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.

The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States. In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society. 

The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.

Other transnational organizations, such as Tren de Aragua (TdA) and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) pose similar threats to the United States. Their campaigns of violence and terror in the United States and internationally are extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.

The Cartels and other transnational organizations, such as TdA and MS-13, operate both within and outside the United States. They present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency, under IEEPA, to deal with those threats.

Policy & Actions

It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States.

Within 14 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall take all appropriate action, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, to make a recommendation regarding the designation of any cartel or other organization described as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Within 14 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to make operational preparations regarding the implementation of any decision I make to invoke the Alien Enemies Act in relation to the existence of any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor, and to prepare such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.

Sources Whitehouse, AFPI, FTI Consulting