By Priscilla Alvarez and Evan Perez, CNN

Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s team is discussing plans to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, according to three sources familiar with the discussions, bringing back an idea that failed to come to fruition during his first term in office.

In late 2019, Trump appeared close to designating Mexican cartels as terror organizations but held off at the request of then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But inside Trump’s Justice Department, the idea of designating drug cartels as terrorist groups had also prompted broad pushback from career officials and from Trump political appointees.

While the designation stalled, Republicans have continued to float it in the years since, including introducing legislation that would designate selected cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Mexican cartels rake in billions of dollars and control much of the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and are also involved in human smuggling.

As Trump prepares for his return to office, the designation is back on the table. Sources told CNN it’s unclear whether Trump would move to designate selected Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations on day one, but discussions are ongoing on who might be included and when action would be taken.

CNN reached out to the Trump transition for comment.

Speaking in Arizona last December, Trump reiterated plans to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a distinction that could preface the use of military force on Mexican soil.

Trump has threatened to drop bombs on fentanyl labs and send special forces to take out cartel leaders, an incursion that could violate Mexico’s sovereignty and disrupt relations with the United States’ largest trading partner.

Designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations could also lead to tougher financial penalties and legal ramifications in the US against those involved. But experts argue that it could strain the relationship between the US and Mexico.

The secretary of state, in coordination with the attorney general and treasury secretary, makes the designation and then notifies Congress. Among those currently designated are ISIS, Boko Haram, Hamas, among others.

Federal agencies already have tools at their disposal to crack down on transnational criminal organizations. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security launched an interagency effort, committing $50 million and surging over 1,300 personnel in Latin America to tackle human smuggling networks.

Operation Sentinel, for example, sought to restrict the ability of human smugglers and their associates to travel, conduct commerce or finance operations, in an attempt to kneecap networks.

Joint Task Force Alpha – a law enforcement task force – is focused on investigation and prosecution of human smuggling and trafficking networks operation in Mexico and the Northern Triangle.

Some former Homeland Security officials argue that there are enough tools at the government’s disposal to target and dismantle transnational criminal organizations, and designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would provide few additional resources.

“It’s more about putting pressure on the government of Mexico,” one of the sources said when describing the discussions.

The designations remain a topic of discussion among Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who maintain it’s necessary to more swiftly go after cartels.

“Basically, you take the gloves off, meaning it can be anywhere from having joint operations where you’re physically doing things or where you’re actively targeting, maybe once again through finances, you’re turning loose DOJ and FBI,” Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who supports labeling cartels as terrorist organizations and has talked to incoming Trump officials on the matter, told CNN.

“Right now, some of that is happening, but it’s very much in a vacuum, and there’s a lot of bureaucracy and red tape attached to it before you can get to that point,” he said, adding that it also “sends a very clear message to the Mexican government that they need to be cooperating with us, not, you know, working against us.”

Cartel designations regain momentum

During the first Trump administration, William Barr, who served as attorney general, expressed openness to the idea despite qualms from top officials.

In one Oval Office meeting in 2019, Barr and other Justice officials met with Trump and administration officials to discuss Mexico and its cartel problems. Barr sided with Trump on exploring the idea, as other administration officials warned against making the move.

Barr traveled to Mexico that winter and negotiated a deal with Mexican officials to bolster cooperation between the two countries on fighting trafficking and on migration issues. The cartel designation issue appeared to die with that deal.

More recently, Barr has revisited the idea. But a terror designation isn’t enough, he has argued.

In his memoir and in a March 2023 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Barr cited the rise in fentanyl and other drug overdose deaths in the US as reason for Congress to give the president the authority to use the US military to go after the cartels inside Mexico.

Ideally, Mexican authorities would welcome the limited help of the US military, along with intelligence and American law enforcement operations, to confront what is a narco-terrorist threat, he wrote in the Journal article. He cited as a model Syria, where the US has used military force to go after ISIS after determining the Syrian government had lost control of its territory and was unable to prevent the threat from the group.

“The head of the snake is in Mexico, and that is where the main thrust of our efforts must be directed,” Barr wrote in the Journal. “Under international law, a government has a duty to ensure that lawless groups don’t use its territory to carry out predations against its neighbors. If a government is unwilling or unable to do so, then the country being harmed has the right to take direct action to eliminate the threat, with or without the host country’s approval.”

Even Barr, with his aggressive view on the issue, has had to confront the reality of the complicated relationship with Mexico.

In the closing months of the first Trump administration, Mexico reacted angrily to the 2020 US arrest of former Mexican Defense Secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda. For a period, Mexico refused to approve visas for US Drug Enforcement Administration agents and suspended cooperation with the US on issues ranging from narcotics to immigration.

Barr was forced to return Cienfuegos to Mexico to save broader agreements that Trump viewed as more important, including Mexican help on migrants.

When President Joe Biden took office, the relationship was at rock bottom. A parade of top Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, spent 2021 making visits to Mexico City to soothe the anger of Mexican officials and help restore cooperation on battling the cartels.

The-CNN-Wire
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