in effect
This is Executive Order 14157, signed January 20, 2025, and published in the Federal Register on January 29, 2025. It directs the federal government to start formally labeling certain international drug cartels and other transnational groups (such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13) as either “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” or “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” It also declares a national emergency to address the threat these groups pose.
The order sets up a process and two deadlines. Within 14 days, the Secretary of State (working with Treasury, the Attorney General, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence) must recommend which specific cartels or organizations should receive the terrorist designations under the cited laws (8 U.S.C. 1189 and Executive Order 13224). Also within 14 days, the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security must make “operational preparations” for the possibility that the President invokes the Alien Enemies Act (50 U.S.C. 21), including preparing facilities to speed up the removal of people covered by the order. The order itself does not name any specific group as designated; it creates the mechanism and declares a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It states it does not create any legal rights anyone can enforce in court, and must be carried out consistent with existing law and available funding.
The federal agencies named in the order — State, Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, and the intelligence community — are directed to act within the deadlines. The cartels and transnational groups that may be designated (including Tren de Aragua and MS-13) would face the legal and financial consequences that come with a terrorist designation, such as blocked property and prohibited transactions. People who could be subject to removal under a possible future invocation of the Alien Enemies Act may also be affected, though the order itself only directs preparation, not action.