Dutch Parliament Criminalizes Organization

By
Markus Noah
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There’s an intricate legal and constitutional dance unfolding in the background of America’s ongoing struggle with political extremism — and at the center of it lies a burning question: Can Antifa be designated as a terrorist organization? The short answer, at least for now, is no. Not in the way foreign groups are labeled. But that might be changing — and fast.

At its core, the problem is two-fold. First, the U.S. legal framework simply doesn’t permit the designation of domestic groups as “terrorist organizations” in the way it does for foreign ones. Under current law — specifically Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act — only foreign entities can be labeled Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The criteria are strict: The group must be foreign, engage in terrorist activities, and pose a threat to U.S. nationals or national security. That framework was created to combat external threats like al Qaeda or ISIS, not homegrown radicals.


There’s also the matter of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), a designation introduced under Executive Order 13224 in the aftermath of 9/11. This tool allows the Treasury to freeze assets and block financial support, again largely targeting foreign threats or individuals with ties to known global terror groups. These definitions do not cleanly apply to domestic collectives, especially those without centralized structures.

And that brings us to the second, more complicated issue: the nature of Antifa itself. Is it a movement? A network? An ideology? Legally, it’s not recognized as an organization with a definable leadership or formal membership structure — but that may be more a matter of convenience than fact. Documents and tweets unearthed by journalists like Andy Ngo suggest communication networks, contact points, even forms — all of which lean toward an organized structure, not a spontaneous social movement. If those links between U.S.-based and European Antifa factions can be legally and evidentially established, the foreign designation door may creak open.


A recent vote by the Dutch parliament to label Antifa a terrorist organization, and the EU’s ongoing consideration of similar measures, shifts the terrain. While Europe has fewer First Amendment-style protections, it signals a growing international consensus that Antifa’s methods — when they include sabotage, arson, or violence — cross the line from protest into terrorism.

And here’s where things get even more compelling. President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence is more than symbolic. By targeting funding sources, the administration is essentially laying the groundwork to treat Antifa as a de facto terror network. It’s an indirect but powerful approach: starve the network of resources, expose its financiers, and build a legal case for broader federal action.


The recent indictment of three women for doxxing an ICE agent — seemingly minor in isolation — reveals something bigger. It suggests federal agencies are already tracing digital communications, applying conspiracy statutes, and perhaps laying traps to uncover broader webs of coordination. That’s how terrorism cases begin: not with headlines, but with quietly collected metadata and careful prosecutorial chess.

Finally, the deployment of federal troops in Portland — and the anticipated Antifa “direct action” — may become a watershed moment. If law enforcement collects geofenced data from protest zones and connects the dots to out-of-state reinforcements, funding, and international coordination, the legal case for an FTO designation gains serious traction. This wouldn’t just be a political maneuver — it would be a seismic shift in the national security landscape.

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