Can our government kill whomever it wants? On paper: no. In practice…
A recent Washington Post report says that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, ordered illegal killings off the Venezuelan coast.
He says they were members of the Tren de Aragua cartel. In January, President Trump designated them global terrorists, which to him, lets him treat them as enemy combatants.
Aside from whether this is legal, the White House has shared no evidence that any of these people were in that gang and given no information to Congress or the public about the names of the dead.
This raises huge due process concerns because “trust us” is not evidence. More than 80 people have been killed on these boats in the past three months.
In normal times, the Coast Guard would just intercept a ship, board it, see if there are drugs, and if there are, confiscate them and detain the passengers. But that’s well below murder without proof.
And just to be clear, killing people who no longer pose an active threat, even enemy combatants, is a war crime.
Ben Sheehan is the bestselling author of What Does the Constitution Actually Say? A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work. Make sure to stay connected with Ben on his Substack Politics Made Easy.
