Can an American President Really Go After All Those 'Bad Hombres' in Mexico? Marc A. Thiessen - AEIdeas
go to original February 3, 2017

Trump may have threatened to send the US military to fight “bad hombres” in Mexico. Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. (TYT)

Does an American president actually have the legal authority to send Americans into Mexico - or any other country for that matter - to take care of “bad hombres” without that country’s approval?

Both sides deny it, but the Associated Press reports that President Trump warned Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in their phone call that if Mexico did not do something about the “bad hombres down there,” Trump might just send American forces to Mexico to “take care of it.”

Team Trump says his comments were “lighthearted” and not meant as a threat. Peña Nieto’s spokesman says, “It is absolutely false that the president of the United States threatened to send troops to Mexico.” CNN reports that Trump actually offered to help, saying, “You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with. We are willing to help with that big-league, but they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out.”



Who’s right? Who the heck knows. But the kerfuffle raises a larger question: Does an American president actually have the legal authority to send Americans into Mexico (or any other country for that matter) to take care of “bad hombres” without that country’s approval?

According to the US Department of Justice, the answer, depending on the circumstances, is … yes.

On June 21, 1989, then-head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and future US Attorney General, William Barr, issued a memorandum entitled “Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities.” The memorandum declares that:

At the direction of the President or the Attorney General, the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI’s actions contravene customary international law. The President, acting through the Attorney General, has the inherent constitutional authority to deploy the FBI to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if those actions contravene customary international law. Extraterritorial law enforcement activities that are authorized by domestic law are not barred even if they contravene unexecuted treaties or treaty provisions, such as Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. An arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

In other words, we do not need permission from the government where fugitives from US justice are hiding in order to apprehend them. Those who violate US law can be seized anywhere in the world – with or without the permission of the government where they are located.

Read the rest at American Enterprise Institute

Related: The Phone Call: What Did Trump Really Say to Peña Nieto? (Mexico Voices)

Related: White House Probes Leaks That Revealed Trump’s ‘Lighthearted’ Threat to Invade Mexico and Hang Up on Australian PM (The Irish Sun)

Related: In the Early 1900s, Woodrow Wilson Was Plagued by Mexico’s “Bad Hombres” - Trying to Interfere Got Him Nowhere (Politico Magazine)

Related: Heroic Hombres Do Their Duty as American President Talks Smack (The Daily Beast)

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