President Donald Trump told Congress that the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Trump sent a memo, obtained by several outlets on Thursday, to Congress declaring the cartels to be terrorist organizations and their members unlawful combatants.
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The memo follows Trump’s authorization of several deadly military airstrikes in the Caribbean to take out suspected drug smuggling boats coming from Venezuela — strikes that have raised legal questions over the administration’s use of immediate lethal force to take out the suspected traffickers as opposed to intercepting the vessels and bringing the people on board back to the U.S. in the name of due process. The memo gives the administration’s legal rationale for the strikes.
“The President directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations,” the memo reads.
The memo to congressional committees did not name any specific cartels the U.S. is in conflict with.
“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,” the memo reads.
In August, the Pentagon deployed thousands of troops and several naval warships off the coast of Latin America to escalate its efforts in fighting the influence of drug cartels and criminal organizations, like Tren de Aragua out of Venezuela.
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Trump told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that his administration is going to “look very seriously at cartels coming by land.”
The White House did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the memo.