The new Trump administration is "designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations" as part of a crackdown on drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexican border, President Donald Trump said during his inauguration speech on Monday.
Trump also promised "to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gang criminal networks" through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the government to round up foreigners who are citizens of a country that Congress has declared war on or that is engaged in an "invasion or predatory incursion."
The terrorism designations are not exactly a declaration of war. A Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation bans Americans—or anyone who wants to immigrate to the United States—from providing any kind of "material support" to a designated terrorist group and allows victims of terrorism to sue alleged FTO supporters for compensation. Meanwhile, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designation allows the U.S. Treasury to seize a group's assets.
