As lawmakers debate the legality of a United States military strike against an alleged drug smuggling boat, the operation is indisputably being viewed as a show of American strength geared toward cartels and the Venezuelan government.

Democrats and Republicans are divided, largely along party lines, over President Donald Trump’s decision to blow up a boat with alleged Tren de Aragua gang members on board earlier this week. However, policy analysts and lawmakers agreed that the attack was meant to send a message as the president seeks to make good on his promise to end a drug epidemic in the United States.

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It also represents an escalation in his feud with Nicolas Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, after Attorney General Pam Bondi offered a $50 million award for information that leads to his arrest and conviction on drug charges.

Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge and resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Examiner that the government typically relies on the Coast Guard or Navy to interdict suspicious vessels at sea, but this more aggressive approach was an act of deterrence.

“It’s partially, ‘Don’t smuggle drugs or we’ll blow you up,’ and it’s partially a message to the Maduro government that relies on the drugs that, ‘We will take military action if we have to,'” Arthur said in a phone call.

A Department of Homeland Security consultant who spoke on condition of anonymity said the boat was not headed to the U.S.

“There’s definitely going to be questions asked about that,” said the DHS consultant. “People that don’t support this or are looking for ways to stop this are going to say this is illegal because it’s an improper use for the military. With the change to the Department of War, people are going to tie all of that together.”

The Washington Examiner asked the Department of Defense how it concluded the vessel was tied to Tren de Aragua and how the strike was carried out. The Pentagon referred those questions to the White House.

Trump underscored Venezuela’s role in the drug trade when addressing the operation from the Oval Office on Friday, telling reporters, “A lot of it’s coming through Venezuela. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. And when you look at that boat, those bags represent hundreds of thousands of dead people in the United States.”

In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. would consider the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization, which gave the administration greater authority to target its members and activities.

Trump stated in his announcement on Wednesday that the U.S. military had “positively identified” the boat as carrying 11 Tren de Aragua members.

At Fort Benning on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the decision while declining to provide specifics.

“Foreign terrorist organizations have been designated, we have those authorities, and it’s about keeping the American people safe,” Hegseth said. “There’s no reason for me to give the public or adversaries any more information than that. But if you’re trafficking drugs, and you’re a known cartel entity, a designated terror organization, and they’re heading for the United States or part of a process that would head to the United States, that will have lethal consequences. The poisoning of the American people is over.”

Pressed on how the military identified the boat, Hegseth added, “We knew exactly who they were, exactly what they were doing, what they represented, and why they were going where they were going. Why would I tell you that? We have plenty of ways to determine how we know who is who.”

Lawmakers are still awaiting answers from the White House, even as Trump officials signal that this marks only the beginning of a wider military campaign. Defense officials had been scheduled to brief congressional leaders and key committees in a classified session Friday morning about the strike, but the meeting was canceled without explanation, the Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As of Friday afternoon, there were no further plans for a congressional briefing, according to several committee aides with knowledge of the matter.

The strike has already split lawmakers. Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), a former Army intelligence officer, argued on X that the campaign against Mexican cartels should take priority over overseas missions. “There is perhaps no greater use of our United States military than aggressive action against the Mexican cartels,” he wrote. “Our troops should be defending our homeland from a clear and present danger, not some distant, vague, potential threat.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a Democrat, also expressed support for the operation, writing on X, “Fully support confronting the scourge of cartel drug trafficking to our nation.”

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) praised the strike in a post on X, saying it underscored that the U.S. is “serious about halting the flow of deadly, illegal narcotics into our country” and declaring that cartels would “no longer” be allowed to harm public safety.

But Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a libertarian, voiced unease in an interview with Newsmax, warning that the strike blurred the line between war powers and law enforcement.

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“If they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat, confiscate it, and put people on trial. Even the worst criminals get their day in court,” Paul said. He stressed that in the U.S. system, “war is the exception,” requiring a congressional vote, and cautioned against treating cartel activity as grounds for military strikes absent a formal declaration. “It’s not as simple as it may sound, that, ‘Oh, let’s just kill drug dealers,’ because sometimes you have to figure out who people are before you kill them.”

Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats condemned the strike, writing on X that “Trump isn’t ending wars, he’s expanding them. The administration must brief Congress immediately and spell out its legal justification, if they have one, for this strike.”