REPORTS: President Trump Using Obama’s 2011 Emergency On Mexican Cartels To Build The Wall!

Business Insider covered the story in 2011 when it happened, take a look:

President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order today declaring the threat of transnational organized crime networks a national emergency. 

The executive order freezes U.S. property and assets owned by four major international criminal organizations — including Mexico's powerful Los Zetas criminal network— and anyone who conspires with them. 

A related presidential proclamation gives U.S. Immigration authorities more authority to keep suspected organized crime members out of the United States. 

The other groups targeted are the Brother's Circle, an organized crime network that operates in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America; the Camorra, an Italian crime group that specializes in counterfeit goods; and the Yakuza, a Japanese organization whose profits primarily come from methamphetamine and human trafficking. 

From Obama's letter to Congress announcing the Executive Order: 

"Significant transnational criminal organizations have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous to the United States, and their activities have reached such scope and gravity that they destabilize the international system. These groups have taken advantage of globalization and other factors to diversify their geographic scope and range of activities. They have increased and deepened their ties to governments and the international financial system, relying not only on bribery and violence, but also more and more on the ability to exploit differences among countries and to create and maintain legal facades to hide illicit activities." 

The administration also notes that transnational criminal organizations are increasingly working with terrorists. (We recently illustrated ties between Mexico's drug trafficking networks and Hezbollah militants.) In 2010, 29 of the top 63 drug traffickers had ties to terror groups, according to U.S. Department of Justice data. 

Today's executive order is part of a broader national security strategy to combat international organized crime groups, which the White House unveiled this morning. We will post highlights from the new initiative this afternoon. 

Politifact even "fact checked" Trump's claim and you can see what they said right here:

"We may be using one of the national emergencies that (President Barack Obama) signed having to do with cartels, criminal cartels. It's a very good emergency he signed, and we are going to use parts of it in our dealings on cartels."

Obama did use emergency powers to freeze the financial assets of four foreign criminal operations, but it’s unclear how that would help build a wall.

On July 25, 2011, Obama announced that "significant transnational criminal organizations constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

Obama targeted four groups, including Mexico’s Los Zetas criminal network, a Russian group called The Brothers, Camorra operating out of Italy and Japan’s Yakuza.

The order blocked the sale or transfer of any U.S. asset linked to these groups. In July 2017, Trump extended Obama’s order for another year.

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