14 Nations Expected to Designate 25 Latin American Groups as Terrorists

The coordinated designations, timed to the U.N. General Assembly, reflect a measurable expansion of Washington's foreign terrorist organization framework beyond U.S. Borders.

Fourteen countries are expected to designate 25 Latin American criminal organizations as terrorist groups on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week, mirroring a policy posture the Trump administration has pursued domestically since early 2025, according to reporting by The New York Times.

The coordinated move parallels actions the Trump administration took in February 2025, when the State Department designated eight organizations, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That designation was published in the Federal Register on February 20, 2025.

FTO designation under U.S. Law carries specific legal consequences. It is unlawful for any person in or entering the United States to knowingly provide material support or resources to a designated group. Financial institutions are required to block funds in which a designated group holds an interest and must report the blocking to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The Trump administration has argued that applying the terrorist label to cartels enables broader use of counterterrorism statutes in prosecutions, expands the legal basis for deportations, and opens access to intelligence-sharing mechanisms typically reserved for national security threats. Critics of the approach, including several legal scholars cited in congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2025, have argued that the designation conflates criminal enterprises with ideologically motivated terrorist groups, a distinction that matters for how courts evaluate evidence and due process.

The 14 nations expected to make announcements at the U.N. General Assembly were not individually named in the Times report available at publication. Their identities, and the specific organizations each country plans to designate, are unknown. The official text of any designation would appear in each country's equivalent of a federal register or official government gazette. For the U.S. Side of any coordinated announcement, the relevant public record would be a State Department press release or a new Federal Register notice.

The diplomatic effort reflects a pattern of the current administration using multilateral forums to build consensus around domestic enforcement frameworks. Whether the designations by allied nations carry reciprocal legal obligations with U.S. Law, such as shared asset-blocking requirements or extradition protocols, is not established in available public records. A State Department spokesperson has not issued a public statement on the expected UNGA announcements as of the date of this article.

Congress has not passed legislation in the current session that formally requires allied nations to adopt compatible terrorist designations as a condition of security assistance, though the House Homeland Security Committee approved a discussion draft in April 2026 that would authorize the President to withhold certain foreign aid from countries that do not designate cartel groups identified by the State Department. That draft has not been scheduled for a floor vote as of September 22, 2026, according to the Congressional Record.

The domestic legal and enforcement consequences of U.S. FTO designations are substantial. Once a group is listed, immigration courts can treat membership or affiliation as a disqualifying bar to asylum, a standard the Board of Immigration Appeals has upheld in several unpublished decisions. ICE and the Justice Department have both cited FTO status in charging documents for cases involving alleged cartel members, as reflected in publicly available court filings in the Southern District of Texas and the Eastern District of New York.

For earlier related coverage, see ICE Agent Shoots Venezuelan Man in Texas; Bullet Lodged Near Spine, which examines a separate enforcement incident connected to the administration's expanded use of counterterrorism tools against Latin American criminal networks.

Several facts remain unknown at publication. The complete list of 14 participating countries has not been confirmed in any public document. The specific 25 organizations targeted for designation by the allied nations have not been published. It is also unknown whether any of the 25 groups are already on the U.S. State Department FTO list, or whether the allied designations would result in new OFAC blocking actions against financial institutions with exposure to those groups. A State Department Federal Register notice or a formal UNGA joint statement would be the documents most likely to resolve those open questions.