President Trump signed an executive order Monday night designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations, an action that's drawn growing support from Republican leaders.
"People have wanted to do this for years," Trump said, as he signed the order. "Mexico probably doesn't want that, but we have to do what's right."
The order describes drug cartels as posing a "national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime" and calls for U.S. agencies to begin taking action within two weeks of Monday's signing.
Posting on the social media site X, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum made no mention of the designation, or of threatened trade tariffs which Trump suggested could go into effect as early as February.
Sheinbaum congratulated Trump and promised "dialogue, respect and cooperation."
Under U.S. law, the designation opens a broad array of actions including freezing or seizing assets of individuals or groups accused of aiding the cartels, while also stiffening criminal penalties. It could also clear the way for potential military strikes by the Trump administration against criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere that are major sources of toxic street drugs, including fentanyl.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) cartels have been blamed by U.S. officials and public health experts in the U.S. for triggering a wave of more than 90,000 drug overdose deaths each year.
During a background briefing with reporters on Monday, incoming White House officials said the U.S. southern border is "overrun" by cartel activity and described narcotics trafficking as part of a wider "invasion," a term that immigration advocates find dehumanizing and misleading.
"We're going to designate criminal cartels and others as FTOs [foreign terrorist organizations]," the official said, while naming two gangs in particular: the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua and MS-13, a gang that originated in Los Angeles.
According to the official, the executive action will begin a process that will direct removal of Tren de Aragua members from U.S. territory under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act, designating them as "an irregular armed force of Venezuela's government."
The official also said that any future U.S. military action inside Mexico would be determined by the U.S. secretary of defense and the U.S. secretary of state under the new Trump administration.
Speaking during her confirmation hearing, Trump's pick to serve as U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, endorsed the idea of designating certain cartels as terrorist organizations, describing them as a "grave and violent threat to our country."
"President Trump has committed to doing it [designating the cartels terrorist organizations] and I think they should," said Trump's chosen "border czar" in a November 2024 interview with News Nation. "They need to be attacked, they need to be wiped out."
But the idea of using a terrorist designation to escalate the drug war alarms many drug policy experts. Analysts at the libertarian Cato Institute have called the idea misguided, warning it could destabilise Mexico and lead to a larger immigration crisis.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on drug cartels at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution is also a critic of the terrorist designation, arguing that it could cripple diplomatic ties with Mexico without seriously impacting criminal fentanyl drug labs and other gang activity.
Experts point to the fact that most of the fentanyl, methamphetamines and other drugs smuggled into the U.S. come through official border crossings — carried not by undocumented migrants, but by American citizens.
Local law enforcement officials in Colorado and elsewhere have also disputed Trump's claims that international gang activity has turned American communities into "war zones."
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