President Donald Trump has once again proven his unwavering commitment to national security by announcing a decisive executive order aimed at dismantling the drug cartels that have been terrorizing America.
On Monday, a new executive order was signed by Trump to designate these groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).
The executive order specifically targets notorious cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as well as violent gangs like MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
The Biden administration’s open-border policies have only emboldened these criminal organizations. By dismantling Trump-era measures like the “Remain in Mexico” policy and halting border wall construction, Biden effectively handed the cartels a golden ticket to expand their influence.
By designating these entities as FTOs and SDGTs, Trump’s administration is determined to mobilize every available resource—ranging from intensified law enforcement crackdowns to strategic military operations—aimed at dismantling cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations.
Trump says he may deploy the military into Mexico to strike the cartels after designating them as foreign terrorist organizations through an executive order.
Labeling these cartels as FTOs and SDGTs also enables the U.S. government to:
Freeze assets linked to the cartels within U.S. jurisdictions.
Prosecute individuals providing support to these organizations under stringent anti-terrorism laws.
Deny entry to members and affiliates of the designated groups.
From this day forward, cartel leaders and the government officials shielding them are officially on notice.
WATCH:
President Trump signs an Executive Order designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations pic.twitter.com/TZhPywQIbq
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2025
Read the executive order below:
DESIGNATING CARTELS AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AS FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS AND SPECIALLY DESIGNATED GLOBAL TERRORISTS
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:
Section 1. Purpose. This order creates a process by which certain international cartels (the Cartels) and other organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, consistent with section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, consistent with IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702) and Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001 (Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism), as amended.
(a) International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime, with activities encompassing:
(i) convergence between themselves and a range of extra-hemispheric actors, from designated foreign-terror organizations to antagonistic foreign governments;
(ii) complex adaptive systems, characteristic of entities engaged in insurgency and asymmetric warfare; and
(iii) 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.
(b) 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.
(c) 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.
Sec. 2. Policy. 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.
Sec. 3. Implementation. (a) 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 in section 1 of this order as a Foreign Terrorist Organization consistent with 8 U.S.C. 1189 and/or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist consistent with 50 U.S.C. 1702 and Executive Order 13224.
(b) 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, 50 U.S.C. 21 et seq., 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.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 20, 2025.
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