Designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations

Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated eight groups as "foreign terrorist organizations" Feb. 20, a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating several secretaries recommend such designations for cartels or other organizations.

The designated organizations include six cartels from Mexico, a Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, and La Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS-13, a gang that originated in Los Angeles and is composed primarily of Salvadoran immigrants or their descendants.

Groups previously designated as foreign terrorist organizations include the Islamic State terror group and al-Qaida. Foreign policy experts have written that despite the brutality of many cartels, they are not terrorist groups. 

"In some ways, these cartels do resemble terrorist groups. They terrorize their victims, often innocent civilians. They participate in illicit networks and engage in drug trafficking, just as terrorist groups do, to raise money for their activities," American University Professor Tricia Bacon and Georgetown University professor Daniel Byman wrote in a Feb. 18 article for Foreign Policy. "The difference is their agenda. Terrorists seek political change, while criminals want to make money."

The foreign terrorist organization designation carries financial and legal ramifications for the group and people in its broader network. For example, it's a crime for U.S. citizens to knowingly provide "material support," such as weapons or money to one of these groups. It also makes group members inadmissible to the U.S. and easily deportable. 

Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel make money smuggling migrants. That means people who pay these groups to reach the U.S. could be seen as providing material support to the group, making them inadmissible to the U.S. 

On the flip side, immigrants in the countries where these newly designated groups operate could claim they are fleeing terrorism, which could presumably strengthen their asylum case, Adam Isacson, defense oversight director at Washington Office on Latin America, a group advocating for human rights in the Americas said Jan. 20 in an X post. 

Some international relations and counterterrorism experts have questioned what will be the tangible impact of designating drug cartels, warning that it could harm U.S. diplomatic relations with Mexico. 

After the State Department's designation, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a Feb. 20 press conference that the designation "should not be used by the United States as an opportunity to invade our sovereignty." And that Mexico is committed to working with the U.S. to stop the flow of fentanyl.

Trump promised to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The State Department gave six cartels that designation. We rate it Promise Kept.

On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process for designating cartels and other groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The designation can carry financial and legal ramifications for the group.

The executive order doesn't designate any group a Foreign Terrorist Organization. That process requires action from several federal agencies. Instead, Trump mandated the attorney general, the secretaries of Homeland Security and Treasury and the national intelligence director "to make a recommendation regarding the designation of any cartel or other organization" within 14 days. 

"International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime," the order said. The order doesn't name specific cartels, but it highlights Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and MS-13, a gang comprised primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, as transnational organizations that threaten the U.S.

The legal designation is used to identify foreign groups that "engage in premeditated, politically motivated acts of terrorism against noncombatant targets," according to the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that provides counsel on foreign affairs.

Some international relations and counterterrorism experts have questioned what tangible impact giving drug cartels the designation would have, adding that it could harm U.S. diplomatic relations with Mexico. Trump floated this idea as president in 2019, but he backed off of it at the request of Mexico's president. 

Trump's executive order begins the process for designating cartels and other transnational groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, but doesn't on its own designate them. We rate this promise In the Works.