Murder on the High Seas Part II: What We Know about U.S. Vessel Strikes One Month In

Since early September, President Trump has ordered the U.S. military to conduct multiple lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of drug trafficking, resulting in at least 21 deaths. 

What do we actually know about the people killed and the vessels targeted? What legal justification is the administration putting forward for the killings— and is it viable? Is there anything to stop the President from making further “terrorist” designations, of citizens or non-citizens, and ordering the military to kill those he designates, including within the United States? What checks exist — from Congress, courts, or within the executive branch itself — on the president’s claimed authority to order killings in these circumstances? 

On this episode of the Just Security Podcast, cross-hosted with the Reiss Center on Law and Security, host Tess Bridgeman and co-host Rachel Goldbrenner are joined by experts Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to analyze the facts, the law, and the broader implications of this military campaign in the Caribbean.

Show Notes: 

This is a joint podcast of Just Security and NYU Law School’s Reiss Center on Law and Security.

Executive branch reporting on the vessel strikes, on Tren de Aragua, and related resources:

• 48-Hour Report pursuant to the War Powers Resolution (September 4, 2025) (Note: For a living resource containing this and all other publicly available reports submitted pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since its enactment in 1973, see NYU Law’s Reiss Center on Law and Security’s War Powers Resolution Reporting Project)
• Notice to Congress Under 50 U.S.C. §1543a (Section 1230 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act) (undated, made public October 2, 2025)
• National Intelligence Council, Venezuela: Examining Regime Ties to Tren de Aragua (April 7, 2025)

Listeners may also be interested in Just Security‘s Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers (updated, Oct. 3, 2025), including:

• Mary B. McCord and Tess Bridgeman, What the Senate Judiciary Committee Should Ask A.G. Bondi on Drug Cartel Strikes (Oct. 3, 2025)
• Marty Lederman, Legal Flaws in the Trump Administration’s Notice to Congress on “Armed Conflict” with Drug Cartels (Oct. 3, 2025)
• Daniel Maurer, US Servicemembers’ Exposure to Criminal Liability for Lethal Strikes on Narcoterrorists (September 24, 2025)
• Ben Saul, The United States’ Dirty War on “Narco Terrorism” (September 22, 2025)
• Annie Shiel, John Ramming Chappell, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar, Murder by Drone: The Legal and Moral Stakes of the Caribbean Strikes (September 17, 2025)
• Brian Finucane, Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror (September 15, 2025)
• Marty Lederman,