Paul Ellertson, online publishing coordinator

According to CNN, the U.S. military has been blowing up boats that are being used by migrants to get to the U.S. by alleging that the boats are actually being used by drug runners. About 80 people have been killed over the course of the last two months. According to another CNN article, polls say that the vast majority of Americans do not support these killings.

“There is no evidence that these boat crews are carrying drugs of any sort, and the Trump administration seems to be trying to gather excuses to kill a bunch of innocent people who are struggling to find a better life,” according to AP News.  

President Trump’s boat attacks also carry the risk of killing American citizens. An example of this was in 2001, when a plane that was carrying American missionaries, the Bowers family, was shot down by the CIA on the claim that they had misidentified the plane as a drug plane. Trump’s policies of carrying out these boat attacks seem to be “shoot first but never ask questions before or after the fact,” according to The Hill. There have been at least 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean that have killed at least 83 people, according to The Hill.

This alleged killing of civilians could be prosecuted later on as a war crime. The U.S. has to prove these boat strikes are killing armed people who can be considered combatants under international law, but these boat attacks seem to be killing unarmed civilians seeking refuge in the U.S., which would constitute a war crime under international law. “It simply doesn’t matter which country these civilians belong to; it’s a war crime to target them,” according to The Hill.  

AP News has reported that the Trump administration appears to be sending all undocumented immigrants who have been detained to Latin American countries like Mexico, Venezuela, and Honduras, regardless of where the migrants actually came from. “If Latin American countries don’t comply with Trump’s immigration policies, the Trump administration has threatened the governments with tariffs and even threatens to take back control of the Panama Canal,” says AP News. 

The Trump administration wants countries such as Panama to not only fly migrants to the Isthmus but also house them. There are images of people being led on and off planes while in shackles. Hotels in Panama are also being used as detention centers for migrants. Many migrants who are taken to Panama are from Asian countries, according to AP News. 

The Trump administration has also continued referring to migrant caravans coming up through central Latin America and into Mexico on their way to the U.S. as “invasions.” Migrants have used big caravans so they don’t have to hire a smuggler, which is called a coyote, to get them across the border. According to The Hill, migrants in these caravans use the safety in numbers strategy. The Trump administration is making plans to put U.S. boots on the ground in Venezuela in what the administration says is an attempt to stop drug trafficking to the U.S. by Venezuelan drug traffickers. Also, according to CNN, the Trump administration could be using the War on Drugs as an excuse to invade Venezuela and overthrow the current government. This is being done by designating the Maduro government using the phrase “Cartel de los Soles.” The use of this phrase is used to refer to corruption within the government of Venezuela.