Trump's Executive Actions To Strengthen Criminal Law

Politicians run on many different political platforms to rally their supporters. One platform that helped to get Donald Trump elected was his stance on a return to law and order. Although it’s a vague concept, many Americans liked the idea of the law actually meaning something and being enforced equally without fail across the nation. Only months into office, Trump has already put many executive orders in place. One such order is in relation to law enforcement. What it means for the men and women in blue might overhaul the way that law enforcement views and prosecutes crime going forward.

The new executive orders are specifically targeting drug traffickers and cartels. Bolstering the already-existing laws available for law enforcement professionals, the first executive order signed by Trump is a promise to help stop criminal cartels and to finally succeed in winning the war on drugs after decades of trying and failing. Understanding the problem of drugs and their consequences, Trump has taken a stab at controlling the drug flow across the border and onto American streets.

Signing new orders along with appointing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the new action gives authorities more strength for action and intelligence liberties than ever before. It allows law enforcement the ability to share information with other countries to target international drug criminals and their subsidiaries. Also included is an order to compile a comprehensive report on various crime syndicates operating around the globe within the next four months.

What Trump and Sessions understand is that it isn’t the local or small-time drug dealer standing on the corner who is calling the shots with their criminal lawyer. There are various international groups driving violence, corruption, and hurting people around the world. The trafficking of cartels is leading to violence in every city in the union, big or small, and an increase in the crimes that result from drugs and drug use nationwide.

Trump is a “big idea” politician who may be the first in a long time to follow through with his political promises and make them more than a part of his stump speech to get elected. Although there seemed to be pre-election tensions between Trump and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto related to who would pay for the border fence, Trump seems to be all in to aid the Mexican president to get drug trafficking under control.

Trump and Sessions believe that a task force targeting drugs will help to reduce not only drug dispersion, but the violence that comes from the sale and distribution, and use of drugs. The Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety will operate according to the new orders and will be under the guise of Sessions’ office itself.

Not only focusing on drug cartels, the new orders will give law enforcement more tools to protect themselves when they are out in the field. The action is proposed to stop both crimes committed and the crimes  perpetrated against those whose job it is to defend the public. It allows the Department of Justice to increase current federal crime penalties, as well as the right to establish new crime definitions and minimum sentencing guidelines for violent criminals and crimes.

As just one of the many executive orders initiated by the Trump Administration, the return to law and order is well underway. Beefing up the Department of Justice’s power and giving local law enforcement and border patrol agents more liberties to take action when they can is just a part of how Trump is attempting to get America back on track. It’s possibly not as controversial as the immigration ban, but there is likely to be some opposition to giving law enforcement more power.

Whether America will finally be able to get drug distribution and trafficking under control remains to be seen. What is apparent, however, is that what Trump said to get elected is what he meant. With many more changes expected, Americans are hopeful that drug violence might be curbed over the next several years. Giving tools to those who really need them and targeting drugs on a grander scale might be the way to win the drug war once and for all.