The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated February 25, 2025
The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List
Congress has shown recurring interest in the administration of the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)—one of several terrorism-related lists that the U.S. government maintains for the purpose of imposing financial sanctions, immigration restrictions, or other penalties in pursuit of law enforcement or national security goals. At various times, Members or committees have sought to add suspected terrorist groups to the FTO list, designate drug cartels and transnational criminal groups as FTOs, or revise legislation to allow other entities to be considered as FTOs. Members at times have considered potential costs of adding groups to the list, including for commerce, diplomacy, and humanitarian operations.
Recent Developments. On February 6, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio identified eight entities as FTOs—the culmination of a process set in motion by Executive Order (E.O.) 14157 of January 20, 2025, on “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists” (see Table 1). The designation of these entities as FTOs took effect on February 20, 2025, when the designations were published in the Federal Register.
On January 22, 2025, President Trump issued E.O. 14175, “Designation of Ansar Allah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.” The order does not immediately designate the group, commonly referred to as the Houthis, as an FTO, but signals the Trump Administration’s intention to take such action by March 2025. The first Trump Administration designated the Houthis as an FTO in January 2021—a move the Biden Administration reversed in February 2021.
Legislative Origins Congress first established the statutory process for designating FTOs in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA; P.L. 104-132). The AEDPA added a new provision to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Section 219 on the “Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (8 U.S.C. §1189). By designating an entity as an FTO, the U.S. government seeks to limit the group’s financial, property, and travel interests. Since the law’s enactment in April 1996, Congress has amended Section 219 of the INA three times. The amendments modified the criteria for designation and judicial review of a designation, extended the duration of a designation, and established procedures to review an FTO’s designation and amend a designation.
FTO Designation Criteria Pursuant to Section 219 of the INA, the Secretary of State is authorized to designate an organization as an FTO if such an entity meets three criteria: the suspected terrorist group must (1) be a foreign organization; (2) engage in “terrorist activity,” “terrorism,” or retain the capability and intent to
engage in terrorist activity or terrorism; and (3) threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national defense, foreign relations, or economic interests of the United States.
Section 219 of the INA relies on the definition of “terrorist activity” in Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the INA (8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(3)(B)) and the definition of “terrorism” in Section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989 (FRAA, P.L. 100-204, as amended; 22 U.S.C. §2656f(d)(2)).
The INA and the FRAA definitions place differing emphasis on what might lead to an FTO designation. The INA defines “terrorist activity” by identifying specific types of illegal or violent actions (hijackings, assassinations, etc.). This definition deemphasizes the ideological motivations or goals of the perpetrators of such activities. However, the FRAA approaches the issue from the motivations of the aggressor and the targets of the violent activity. “Terrorism,” as defined in the FRAA, is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”
Consequences of Designation As a result of an entity’s designation as an FTO: • It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject
to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated FTO, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §2239B.
• Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if
they are aliens (non-U.S. nationals) are inadmissible to, and in certain circumstances removable (deportable) from, the United States, pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the INA (8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(3)(B)).
• The Secretary of the Treasury may require U.S.
financial institutions possessing or controlling any assets of a designated FTO to block all transactions involving those assets, pursuant to Section 219(a)(2)(C) of the INA (8 U.S.C. §1189(a)(2)(C); 31 C.F.R. Part 597).
FTO Revocation Process According to statute, an organization’s status as an FTO may be revoked by an act of Congress or by the Secretary of State. Pursuant to Section 219 of the INA, the Secretary is required to revoke the designation if (1) “the circumstances that were the basis for the designation have changed in such a manner as to warrant a revocation” or (2) “the national security of the United States warrants a revocation.” An FTO may petition the Secretary to review its designation; the Secretary of State is required to review each FTO’s status at least every five years. An FTO also may also seek judicial review regarding its designation.
The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The FTO List As of February 2025, the Secretary of State identified 76 entities as current FTOs and 20 entities as having been delisted (see Table 2). Since the FTO list’s inception, entities have been added to and removed from the FTO list.
Table 1. Entities Currently Designated as FTOs
Date Designated 10/8/1997 Abu Sayyaf Group HAMAS Harakat ul-Mujahidin* Hizballah Kurdistan Workers Party Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam National Liberation Army (ELN) Palestinian Islamic Jihad Palestine Liberation Front Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP-General Command Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front Shining Path
10/8/1999 al-Qa’ida
9/25/2000 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
5/16/2001 New Irish Republican Army*
12/26/2001 Jaish-e-Mohammed Lashkar-e Tayyiba*
3/27/2002 Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb* Asbat al-Ansar
8/9/2002 Communist Party of the Philippines/New
People’s Army
10/23/2002 Jemaah Islamiya
1/30/2003 Lashkar i Jhangvi
3/22/2004 Ansar al-Islam
7/13/2004 Continuity Irish Republican Army
12/17/2004 ISIS* (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)
6/17/2005 Islamic Jihad Union
3/5/2008 Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh
3/18/2008 Al Shabaab*
5/18/2009 Revolutionary Struggle
7/2/2009 Kata'ib Hizballah
1/19/2010 al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula*
8/6/2010 Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami
9/1/2010 Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan
11/4/2010 Jaysh al-Adl*
5/23/2011 Army of Islam
9/19/2011 Indian Mujahedeen
3/13/2012 Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid
5/30/2012 Abdallah Azzam Brigades*
9/19/2012 Haqqani Network
3/22/2013 Ansar al-Dine
11/14/2013 Boko Haram Ansaru
12/19/2013 Al Mulathamun Battalion
1/13/2014 Ansar al-Shari'a in Benghazi Ansar al-Shari'a in Darnah Ansar al-Shari'a in Tunisia
4/10/2014 ISIS-Sinai Province*
5/15/2014 al-Nusrah Front* (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham)
9/30/2015 Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al Naqshabandi
1/14/2016 Islamic State’s Khorasan Province
5/20/2016 ISIS-Libya
7/1/2016 Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
8/17/2017 Hizbul Mujahideen
2/28/2018 ISIS-Bangladesh ISIS-Philippines ISIS-West Africa
5/23/2018 ISIS in the Greater Sahara
7/11/2018 Al-Ashtar Brigades
9/6/2018 Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin
4/15/2019 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
1/10/2020 Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq
1/14/2021 Harakat Sawa’d Misr
3/11/2021 ISIS-DRC ISIS-Mozambique
12/1/2021 Segunda Marquetalia Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia –
People’s Army (FARC-EP)
2/20/2025 Cartel del Golfo Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel de Sinaloa Cartel del Noreste Carteles Unidos La Nueva Familia Michoacana Mara Salvatrucha Tren de Aragua
Note: Entity names as listed at https://www.state.gov/foreign- terrorist-organizations/. For a full list of aliases, see Federal Register notices for each designation. Entries with an asterisk (*) denote FTOs whose aliases or primary names were subsequently amended.
Table 2. Delisted FTOs
Date Originally Designated • Date Removed 10/8/1997 • 10/8/1999 Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine-Hawatmeh Faction
Khmer Rouge Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front
Dissidents
10/8/1997 • 10/8/2001 Japanese Red Army Tupac Amaru Revolution Movement
10/8/1997 • 5/18/2009 Revolutionary Nuclei
10/8/1997 • 10/15/2010 Armed Islamic Group
10/8/1997 • 9/28/2012 Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization
10/11/2005 • 5/28/2013 Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
9/10/2001 • 7/15/2014 United Self Defense Forces of
Colombia
10/8/1997 • 9/3/2015 Revolutionary Organization 17
November
12/17/2004 • 12/9/2015 Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
10/8/1997 • 6/1/2017 Abu Nidal Organization
1/19/2021 • 2/16/2021 Ansarallah (Houthis)
10/8/1997 • 12/1/2021 Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia
10/8/1997 • 5/20/2022 Aum Shinrikyo Basque Fatherland and Liberty Gama’a al-Islamiyya Kahane Chai
8/20/2014 • 5/20/2022 Mujahidin Shura Council in the
Environs of Jerusalem
John Rollins, retired Specialist in Terrorism and National Security, originally authored this In Focus.
Liana W. Rosen, Specialist in International Sanctions and Financial Crimes
IF10613
The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List
https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10613 · VERSION 9 · UPDATED
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