President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict,” according to a Trump administration memo obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly said the Congress was notified about the designation by Pentagon officials on Wednesday.
The move comes after the U.S. military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.
Pentagon officials could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict, a matter that was a major source of frustration for some of the lawmakers who were briefed, according to the U.S. official.
Democrats have been pressing Trump to go to Congress and seek war powers authority for such operations. The official added that the Republican administration now faces criticism that it is effectively waging a secret war against secret enemies, without the consent of congress.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What the administration laid out at the closed-door classified briefing was perceived by several senators as pursuing a new legal framework that raised questions particularly regarding the role of Congress in authorizing any such action, the official familiar with the matter said.
As the administration takes aim at vessels in the Caribbean, senators and lawmakers of both major political parties have raised stark objections. Some had previously called on Congress to exert its authority under the war powers act that would prohibit the administration’s strikes unless they were authorized by Congress.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the administration's notice to several congressional committees laid out the legal rationale for military strikes Trump ordered last month against drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, which killed 17 people. The administration argued that the people aboard were "unlawful combatants" because of ties to cartels.
According to the Times, the notice declared that Trump has determined cartel-linked groups constitute "nonstate armed groups" whose actions amount to an "armed attack against the United States." By invoking international law on what is known as a "noninternational armed conflict," the administration is portraying its anti-cartel operations as a wartime campaign rather than isolated self-defense strikes.
Legal experts cited by the Times said the move cements Trump's claim to extraordinary wartime powers — the authority to target enemy fighters without trial, detain suspects indefinitely, and try them in military courts. The administration stressed the devastating toll of drug overdoses, which kill about 100,000 Americans annually, as justification.
The Times, however, noted that much of the U.S. military focus has been on Venezuelan boats, even though experts say the surge in fentanyl deaths comes primarily from cartels in Mexico. Critics told the paper that the administration is stretching the law by equating drug trafficking with an "armed attack."
The notice, while controlled-but-unclassified, did not identify specific cartels or set clear standards for determining cartel ties. In one recent case, the administration labeled three men killed on Sept. 15 as "unlawful combatants," citing intelligence that their vessel was linked to a designated terrorist organization and carrying narcotics bound for the U.S.
The Times reported that some legal scholars are skeptical. Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, said under international law nonstate groups must be "organized armed groups" to count as parties to a conflict. He questioned whether the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Trump officials have spotlighted, fits that definition.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
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