Trump Issues Executive Order Seeking to Designate Cartels as Terrorists

Mexican cartel members driving SUVs race to an open gap in the U.S. border wall near Jacomba, Calif., on Dec. 6, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office seeking to designate certain cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and specially designated global terrorists, which would grant authorities greater power to crack down on those organizations.

The Jan. 20 executive order states that cartels are flooding the United States with “deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” with these groups posing “an unacceptable national security risk” to the country. The order says that 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.”

Drugs flowing across the southern border have triggered a fentanyl crisis in the United States. A powerful opioid, fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams is enough to be fatal. Fentanyl precursors are often shipped from China to cartel members in Mexico and then trafficked into the United States.

In 2023, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl killed an estimated 74,702 Americans, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opioids were responsible for a majority of 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the country.

Last month, Trump said he planned to “immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations” once he entered the White House. The president had considered such a move during his first term but set it aside following a request from then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The executive order also highlighted the threats posed by transnational criminal groups such as Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) that have unleashed “campaigns of violence and terror” in the United States that have been “extraordinarily violent, vicious.”

Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a recent hearing that the gang was operating in the state’s four largest cities. Rausch explained that Tren de Aragua typically begins with human trafficking, then moves into organized retail theft, and eventually engages in drug trafficking.

“They have a pathway of violence, and we want people to be aware of that,” he said. “They are very violent toward policing—they have no respect for law enforcement. They will fight, and they will attack police.”

MS-13 members mostly tend to be from El Salvador and Central America and engage in activities such as drug trade and extortion.

The gang came under increased public scrutiny in the United States after an illegal immigrant, alleged to be a gang member, raped and killed a 20-year-old autistic woman, Kayla Hamilton, in Maryland in July 2022.

Trump’s executive order said the cartels and transnational groups present “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” Trump declared a national emergency to “deal with those threats.”

“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,” the order states.

Within 14 days of the order, the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary of the treasury, the attorney general, the secretary of homeland security, and the director of national intelligence, are required take action to provide recommendations regarding the designation of cartels.

Also within 14 days, the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security are required to take appropriate action, in consultation with the secretary of state, to make operational preparations for implementing decisions made by Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act concerning “predatory incursions” into the United States. Relevant authorities must also make preparations to expedite the removal of individuals designated under the order.

FTO Consequence, Military Action in Mexico

With the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation, any individual or entity in the United States is prohibited from knowingly providing “material support or resources” to the designated entities. Individuals with ties to FTOs can be removed from the United States under certain circumstances.

Any financial institution aware that it possesses funds linked to the FTO must take full control over these assets and report them to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

FTO designation isolates terrorists and terror groups internationally, deters donations to and economic transactions with these organizations, and supports measures to curb terror financing, according to the U.S. State Department.

As for individuals and entities classified as specially designated global terrorists, the label grants the U.S. Treasury the authority to disrupt their funding access, not only in America but also in other parts of the global financial system, according to the think tank the Atlantic Council.

An alleged MS-13 gang member detained in El Salvador, on March 4, 2013. Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images

In Trump’s executive order, he said that cartels control “nearly all aspects of society” in certain regions of Mexico, functioning as “quasi-governmental entities.” The proximity of the cartels to the United States threatens the safety of the American people, national security, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere, it states.

“Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States,” the order states.

Trump has also suggested that military action in Mexico could be authorized.

When asked during his first day in office whether he would consider sending U.S. special forces into Mexico to take out the cartels, the new president replied, “Could happen. Stranger things have happened.”

In a Nov. 15, 2024, commentary published by The Epoch Times, Anders Corr, a principal at Corr Analytics Inc. which publishes the Journal of Political Risk, highlighted some of the challenges Trump is expected to face regarding potential military action in Mexico.

“The Mexican government opposes U.S. military force on Mexican territory. Designating the cartels as terrorists and using covert operations is one response. Mexico is America’s largest trade partner and could withhold drug enforcement and immigration cooperation,” he wrote. “Another difficulty is diplomatic. A naval, drone, or special operations campaign in Mexico could cause the United States stress at the United Nations and with our allies.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the executive order had designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The Epoch Times regrets the error.