Among dozens of day one executive orders President Donald Trump enacted on Jan. 20, was an executive order to begin designating transnational cartels as terrorist organizations.
The order states cartels go beyond traditional organized crime rings, to pose a threat to national security. The order states cartels have shown a willingness to work with “extra hemispheric actors” including other designated foreign terrorist organizations, and antagonistic foreign governments. The order further states cartels have already shown an ability to engage in insurgency and asymmetric warfare, and to infiltrate governments and power structures within the western hemisphere.
Trump’s order specifically lists the Colombian cartel organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the El Salvadoran organization La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as entities warranting potential terrorism designations.
MS-13 has had a persistent presence throughout the United States for decades, and has been linked to drug, gun, and human trafficking, as well as murders, and rapes, prostitution and extortion rings, and thefts.
TdA gained notoriety this summer, amid reports members the organization had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. Local officials disputed the veracity of this particular claim, but the Aurora Police Department did confirm arrests of TdA suspects.
In November, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also confirmed arrest of a TdA wanted for murder in Texas.
Addressing MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, Trump’s order 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.”
Trump’s order states the Secretary of State, working with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall make a determination within 14 days on whether to list MS-13 and Tren de Aragua on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) lists.
The order also establishes a process by which the executive branch may designate other transnational criminal organizations as terrorist groups.
Organizations placed on the FTO and SDGT lists may be subject to enhanced sanctions authorities. Such designations block individuals from knowingly providing financial or other material support to said organizations, and foreign nationals who are members or representatives of said organizations are barred admission into the United States.
The order also states Trump could invoke the Alien Enemies Act against those designated cartel organizations. Enacted in 1798, the Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority by which the president may order the detention and deportation of natives of a designated foreign nation.
U.S. presidents have used the act on three previous occasions, during the War of 1812 as a means to track the presence and naturalization status of British nationals residing in the newly established United States, during World War I to document and arrest thousands of German nationals living in the United States, and again during World War II to document and at times detain Japanese, German and Italian nationals.
The Alien Enemies Act specifically states the president may use this act to detain and deport people if Congress declares a war, invasion, or predatory incursion by a foreign nation or government. The nature of war has changed in recent years, with the United States frequently fighting non-state actors. It remains to be seen whether the Alien Enemies Act will provide a sufficient basis for Trump’s plans to detain and deport cartel members.
Beyond expanding financial sanctions and deportation authorities against cartels, the effort to list these groups as terrorist organizations may serve as a justification for the use of military force to combat the cartels.
Among the other orders Trump signed on Jan. 20, was a declaration of a national emergency on the U.S. southern border. That order stipulates U.S. armed forces may be deployed to assist in border security efforts.
Another order asserts the U.S. military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity and national boundaries of the United States.
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump said he would also order his Department of Defense to use “special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations” and the U.S. Navy to enforce an embargo against cartels seeking to traffic illicit drugs by sea.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
