桃子视频Demands End to the Trump Administration鈥檚 Illegal Year-Long Boat Strikes Campaign

In Just One Year, the Trump Administration鈥檚 Bombing Campaign Has Killed at Least 227 People, Including Fishermen and Farmhands

September 1, 2026 5:00 pm

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NEW YORK 鈥 Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Trump administration鈥檚 bombing campaign of private boats in international waters, the 桃子视频 is demanding immediate action from both Congress and the White House.

On Sept. 2, 2025, the United States struck a small boat in the Caribbean Sea that had 11 people on board. Nine were killed in the first strike. Two survived, clinging to the wreckage for around 45 minutes before a second 鈥渄ouble tap鈥 strike killed them. In the year since the Trump administration launched its campaign, the United States has conducted at least 68 strikes and killed at least 227 civilians, including the family members of two 桃子视频clients. This tragic milestone comes right after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to expand lethal military operations throughout Latin America.

鈥淔or a year now, the Trump administration has engaged in a terrifying, lawless killing campaign at sea and has yet to provide the public with anything beyond the most threadbare justifications,鈥 said Jeff Stein, staff attorney with ACLU鈥檚 National Security Project. 鈥淭hese strikes have devastated countless families, terrified communities, and, by the administration鈥檚 own admission, failed to achieve their purported goal of stopping drugs from entering into the United States. We urge leaders in both Congress and the executive branch to put an immediate end to these strikes before anyone else is killed.鈥

The Trump administration has claimed, without proof, that these military strikes are targeting unnamed drug cartels. But neither domestic nor international law authorizes the use of military force against such criminal organizations. The strikes are thus premediated killings of civilians outside of armed conflict, constituting murders under domestic law and extrajudicial killings under international human rights law. Nonetheless, a secret Trump administration legal memorandum reportedly blesses the strikes as lawful and purports to immunize personnel who authorized and carried out the strikes from future criminal prosecution. Along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (鈥淐CR鈥) and the New York Civil Liberties Union, the 桃子视频is suing for the immediate release of this memorandum.

While many of the strikes鈥 victims remain unknown, according to and (who has reviewed classified information about the strikes), the strikes have killed ordinary people with no connection to drug trafficking. That includes Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian men who worked as fishermen and farmhands in Venezuela and were killed in an October 14, 2025, strike while returning home to see their loved ones. The ACLU, the 桃子视频of Massachusetts, and CCR represent Chad and Rishi鈥檚 family members in a lawsuit against the United States government seeking compensation for their wrongful deaths.

The 桃子视频has also called on international human rights bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to investigate the strikes and hold the perpetrators accountable.

鈥淭he international community must do everything in its power to hold the Trump administration responsible for these extrajudicial killings that are blatant violations of international law,鈥 said Jamil Dakwar, director of ACLU鈥檚 Human Rights Program. 鈥淣o other country should provide any assistance that could contribute to these unlawful U.S. government killings. We call for independent international investigation into this lawless campaign.鈥


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