To direct the Secretary of State to designate as foreign terrorist organizations certain Mexican drug cartels and submit a report on the activities the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug cartel violence, and for other purposes.

Summary: Directs the Secretary of State to designate as a foreign terrorist organization each of the following: (1) the Arellano Felix Organization, (2) the Los Zetas Cartel, (3) the Juarez Cartel, (4) the Beltran Leyva Organization, (5) la Familia Michoacana, (6) the Sinaloa Cartel, and (7) the Gulf Cartel/New Federation.

Directs the Secretary to report on Department of State activities to assist Mexico with drug cartel violence, including programs under the Merida Initiative, training programs, and equipment.

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Office of Counterterrorism of the Department of 
        State has stated, ``FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations) 
        designations play a critical role in our fight against 
        terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for 
        terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the 
        terrorism business.''.
            (2) Assistant Secretary Brownfield acknowledged in sworn 
        testimony on October 4, 2011, that ``[M]any of the facts on the 
        ground, the things that are being done by those organizations 
        (drug cartels), are consistent with what we would call either 
        terrorism or insurgency in other countries.''.
            (3) On October 27, 2011, Secretary Clinton during a 
        Congressional Hearing stated: ``. . . we are sensitive to the 
        characteristics that some of these drug traffickers have 
        adopted that certainly resemble terrorist activities . . . I 
        have said it has characteristics of an insurgency . . .''.
            (4) When Americans at home and abroad, including agents 
        assigned to protect United States borders and national 
        security, are targeted, threatened, and attacked by such 
        foreign entities, it threatens the safety and security of the 
        United States and its people.
            (5) Mexican drug cartels maintain drug-distribution 
        networks, or supply drugs to distributors, in at least 230 
        American cities, leading the Justice Department to call Mexican 
        drug cartels the ``greatest organized crime threat'' to the 
        United States.
            (6) On March 13, 2010, Lesley A. Enriquez, an employee of 
        the United States consulate in Mexico, and her husband, Arthur 
        H. Redelfs, a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail, 
        were targeted and killed allegedly by a drug trafficking 
        organization (DTO).
            (7) On February 15, 2011, the Zeta DTO boldly attacked and 
        killed United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent 
        Jamie Zapata, and wounded a second agent, Victor Avila.
            (8) Since President Calderon took office in late 2006, 
        assaults on Border Patrol agents have increased from 729 in 
        fiscal year 2006 to 1,039 in fiscal year 2011.
            (9) In Mexico, there have been over 8,000 homicides in 
        2011, increasing the number of deaths related to organized 
        crime and pushing the number of deaths to over 40,000 since 
        President Calderon came to office in late 2006.
            (10) In early August 2010, President Calderon described the 
        violence perpetrated by the DTOs as ``a challenge to the state, 
        an attempt to replace the state''.
            (11) In 2010 there were 13 political assassinations, 
        including several that took place around the July municipal and 
        state elections.
            (12) In the 5 years of the Calderon government's crackdown 
        on the DTOs, more than 40 journalists in Mexico have been 
        murdered or disappeared according to the International 
        Committee to Protect Journalists, including at least 7 
        journalists in 2011.
            (13) DTOs use car bombs, displays of murdered individuals, 
        body mutilations, beheadings, and other indiscriminate attacks 
        on civilians, including the August 25, 2011, Casino Royale 
        arson fire in Monterrey, to intimidate the public.
            (14) President Calderon's response to a DTO's burning of 
        the Casino Royale and murder of 52 innocent civilians was, ``We 
        are facing true terrorists . . .''.
            (15) The Mexican drug cartels meet all of the legal 
        criteria for designation as foreign terrorist organizations 
        under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 
        U.S.C. 1189):
                    (A) The organizations are foreign organizations.
                    (B) The organizations engage in terrorist activity 
                (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration 
                and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B))) or 
                terrorism (as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the 
                Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 
                and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(2))), or retain the 
                capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity 
                or terrorism.
                    (C) The terrorist activity or terrorism of the 
                organizations threatens the security of United States 
                nationals or the national security of the United 
                States.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION.

    The Secretary of State shall designate under section 219 of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) as a foreign terrorist 
organization the following:
            (1) The Arellano Felix Organization.
            (2) The Los Zetas Cartel.
            (3) The Juarez Cartel.
            (4) The Beltran Leyva Organization.
            (5) La Familia Michoacana.
            (6) The Sinaloa Cartel.
            (7) The Gulf Cartel/New Federation.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of State shall submit to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on the activities 
the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug cartel 
violence, including programs under the Merida Initiative, training 
programs, and equipment.
    (b) Definition.--In this section, the term ``Merida Initiative'' 
means the program announced by the United States and Mexico on October 
22, 2007, to fight illicit narcotics trafficking and criminal 
organizations throughout the Western Hemisphere.