(NewsNation) — The State Department on Wednesday designated eight transnational criminal organizations as global terrorist organizations, including five drug cartels.
Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are among those named terrorist groups by the Trump administration, which had warned of the move previously.
Others are Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel) and Cárteles Unidos.
Making these groups terrorist organizations allows U.S. law enforcement to go after their assets and people they know, such as their associates or even family members living in America.
“The intent of designating these cartels and transnational organizations as terrorists is to protect our nation, the American people, and our hemisphere,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “That means stopping the campaigns of violence and terror by these vicious groups both in the United States and internationally. These designations provide law enforcement additional tools to stop these groups.”
Other consequences include legal ramifications if someone helps a designated terrorist organization, as well as travel bans on members.
Because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has said there is a cartel presence in all 50 states, officials will be given more power to move within the country.
No more ‘catch and release’
In other immigration news, NewsNation obtained through Department of Homeland Security sources a directive calling for the detention of undocumented migrants who did not previously receive a court date or charging document.
All Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel have been told to detain anyone in the country under the “catch and release” practice. Officers, the directive said, should review individuals for re-detention if they were released because there is not initially a significant likelihood of removal in the foreseeable future.
John Fabbricatore, retired field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said many of these cases were already on the docket with ERO.
“Some of them should have probably been processed differently when they came across the border, but because of the limited detention space that we had, instead of them detaining them and actually going through the whole case, they were just released into the interior of the United States,” Fabbricatore said.
Reuters contributed to this report.