Greg Abbott’s border theater now includes acting as the State Department

Governor Greg Abbott is once again using the border to test the limits of his authority. Abbott was appointed last month Tren de Araguaa transnational criminal organization with roots in a Venezuelan prison, as a foreign terrorist organization.

Normally, the U.S. State Department designates all foreign terrorist organizations based on criteria set forth in the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. But it’s not the first time Abbott has strayed outside the norms of his leadership role in state government. In September 2022, he declared that the Mexican drug cartels were foreign terrorist organizations. Besides Abbott, no governor appears to have taken such radical steps, experts say.

Jason Blazakis, former director of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, said Texas Observer that Abbott’s move could cause confusion abroad. “It complicates things for our partners, who may be watching what’s happening in the United States, and they could frame an action by the state of Texas as a mandate from the federal government, when that’s not the case,” Blazakis said.

After Abbott unilaterally declared “Mexican drug cartels,” including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations through an executive order in 2022, Texas Republicans created a legal basis for him to do so again.

In 2023, Senator Brian Birdwell introduced Senate Bill 1900, which created a state definition for a foreign terrorist organization under the Texas Criminal Code. The bill was passed and went into effect last fall, making Texas appear to be the only state with its own legal definition for a foreign terrorist organization, according to interviews with experts and a review of state statutes. Under Texas law, a foreign terrorist organization is now defined as “three or more persons operating as an organization at least partially outside the United States and engaged in criminal activity that threatens the security of this State or its residents, including but not limited to a drug cartel.”

Republicans outside Texas have tried to follow suit. In 2023, Republican lawmakers in Arizona introduced a bill that would have declared Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations. (The state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, vetoed it.) Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Senators John Kennedy of Louisiana and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina began efforts in 2023 to change federal law to require the State Department to demand that it recognize several Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. , including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.

The Republican push to give Mexican drug cartels the status of foreign terrorist organizations is not new. Since the 2010s, some conservatives have proposed various measures to increase militarization, including labeling drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and even declaring war on the groups by advocating drone strikes or even sending troops to Mexico to steer.

Texas’ definition of a foreign terrorist organization is much broader than the State Department’s. The federal government makes the designation based on legal criteria in the Immigration Nationality Act: the group must be based abroad, engage in terrorist activities or political violence such as bombings and assassinations, and pose a risk to U.S. national security interests. The designation process is rigorous and requires a fair amount of paperwork and citations to substantiate each claim. Writing the designation’s administrative file is an “exhaustive process,” similar to writing a dissertation, and can take months to complete, Blazakis said. It is unclear what process exists for the Texas designation. Abbott’s office did not respond to questions sent by email.

Because the State Department has designated a group as a foreign terrorist organization, the federal government can freeze assets and prosecute people who provide financing or material support. Nearly the same consequences apply if the U.S. Treasury Department designates the group as a transnational criminal organization, Blazakis said. Tren de Aragua was classified as a transnational criminal organization in July.

As governor, Abbott lacks the authority to designate such groups as terrorist organizations, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at the Brookings Institution. Abbott also lacks the resources or authority to conduct transnational or national investigations into organized crime. The Texas Office of the Governor’s Public Safety Office has announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification or arrest of Tren de Aragua members. In July, the federal government announced offers of up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of several of the group’s leaders.

Abbott’s attempt to designate the organization as a foreign terrorist organization is “merely theatrical,” Blazakis said.

Tren de Aragua‘s activities also don’t fit most definitions of terrorism, Blazakis said. Normally, the groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations engage in violence with a unifying ideological goal – such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. But that is not the case Tren de Aragua‘s goal. To make profits, the gang has engaged in illegal mining, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion and trafficking in illegal drugs in several countries, according to the US Treasury Department. They have a “particular focus on human smuggling and other illegal acts that target desperate migrants,” the agency said.

Tren de Aragua According to Mike LaSusa, members are generally motivated by money and not by political ideology. deputy director of content at InSight Crime, a think tank and newsroom that has been researching and reporting on the group in several countries for several years. Most of Tren de AraguaThe United States’ criminal activities in the United States, according to LaSusa, are “lower hanging fruit,” such as theft, extortion of individuals, or actions that do not require a sophisticated criminal infrastructure.

“They are certainly only operating on a very small scale,” LaSusa said, but law enforcement officials are still considering the level of public safety threat the group poses and are “walking the fine line between not raising undue alarm about the gang , but also to show people that they take the gang seriously.”

InSight Crime reported in April 2024 that the gang “does not appear to have a substantial U.S. presence and appears unlikely to establish one” after contacting more than a dozen national, state and local law enforcement agencies – none of which reported made significant Tren de Aragua activity.

Texas’ latest move is part of a broader Republican campaign to get the federal government to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Some have even called for military action. “You see Republican politicians continually calling for the US to bomb the cartels or even for US special operations forces to take action against the cartels – something the Mexican government is deeply opposed to,” said Felbab-Brown, director from the Brookings Institution.

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an author and professor at George Mason University who specializes in U.S.-Mexico relations and organized crime, said a federal foreign terrorist organization designation for Mexican drug cartels would have negative diplomatic implications. relations between the two countries. Designating a Latin American gang as a foreign terrorist organization is part of a playbook to demonize asylum seekers, Correa-Cabrera said, which highlights the “idea that migrants are not just taking the jobs, but also going along with these groups… who commit really bad deeds.” things.”

Trying to connect immigration to national security and public safety issues is part of Republicans’ election strategy, she said.

“Harnessing the politics of fear has been a very important electoral tool for Republicans in recent years,” she said. “Why is this happening now, when the elections are very close? And why (is) the governor of Texas… reinforcing the politics of fear? They do that every year.”