Terrorist Organization Classification Act of 2023

Terrorist Organization Classification Act of 2023

This bill directs the Department of State to designate five specified drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. (Among other things, such a designation allows the Department of the Treasury to require financial institutions to block transactions involving the organization.)

The five specified cartels in the bill are MS-13, Queen Nation, Sinaloa, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, and Beltran Leyva Organization.

The bill also requires the State Department to submit a detailed report on those five cartels and any other cartels it may identify. Based on this report, the State Department must designate as a foreign terrorist organization any such identified cartel (or faction thereof) that meets certain criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization.

The bill specifies that it may not be construed to expand eligibility for asylum.