After Bombing Boats, Trump Tells Congress US Is in 'Armed Conflict' With Drug Cartels

President Donald Trump's administration claimed that the United States is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels in a confidential notice to Congress this week intended to justify his deadly bombings of alleged smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

Democrats in Congress and legal officials have been challenging the legality of the three military strikes Trump announced last month. A woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the at least 17 people extrajudicially killed in the US bombings said her husband was a fisher.

"Congress was notified about the designation by Pentagon officials on Wednesday," according to The Associated Press, one of several outlets that obtained the notice. The New York Times reported that it "was sent to several congressional committees."

NewsNation's Kellie Meyer posted the full memo on social media:

After citing a relevant section from the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024, the notice describes decades of law enforcement efforts to stem the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States as "unsuccessful," and says that cartels "illegally and directly cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American citizens each year."

"The president determined these cartels are nonstate armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States," the document continues. Trump also "determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations" and directed the US Department of Defense, which he has dubbed the Department of War, "to conduct operations against them."

"The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations," adds the memo, which notes the second strike on September 15.

Lawmakers and legal experts again challenged the administration's claim that, as the notice put it, Trump directed the bombings under "his constitutional authority as commander in chief and chief executive to conduct foreign relations."

As the Times reported:

Geoffrey S. Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer who was formerly the Army's senior adviser for law-of-war issues, said drug cartels were not engaged in "hostilities"—the standard for when there is an armed conflict for legal purposes—against the United States because selling a dangerous product is different from an armed attack.

Noting that it is illegal for the military to deliberately target civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities—even suspected criminals—Mr. Corn called the president's move an "abuse" that crossed a major legal line.

"This is not stretching the envelope," he said. "This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart."

New York University School of Law professor Ryan Goodman, who served as special counsel to the general counsel of the Defense Department during the Obama administration, said on social media that Corn was "completely right."

"Drug cartels not = 'armed conflict,'" Goodman added, stressing that the "people killed" in such strikes "are civilians."

Rutgers University law professor Adil Haque similarly pushed back on social media, saying: "The United States is not in a 'non-international armed conflict' with drug cartels. Cartels are not organized as armed groups, nor are they engaged in intense hostilities. These are dangerous criminal organizations and should be confronted using law enforcement tools."

Members of Congress also publicly weighed in, including Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), who said that "every American should be alarmed that President Trump has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he labels an enemy. Drug cartels must be stopped, but declaring war and ordering lethal military force without Congress or public knowledge—nor legal justification—is unacceptable."

At least two of the strikes have occurred off the coast of Venezuela, elevating fears of an armed conflict with the country.

"Trump's actions are illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in response to the new memo. "He is leading us willy-nilly into war with Venezuela. I have 'determined' that this is a terrible idea."