South Dakota Republican congressional delegates, from left, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Sen. Mike Rounds and Rep. Dusty Johnson speak at Dakotafest in Mitchell, South Dakota, on Aug. 20, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Let’s posit, just for the sake of argument, that a South Dakota police officer shot and killed a person merely suspected of transporting illegal narcotics from, say, Sioux Falls to Rapid City. No arrest, no indictment, no due process, no Miranda Rights, no nothing. Just suspicion.
Would that be OK, legally?
Of course not.
In the United States, people theoretically have inviolable rights, including the right not to be killed if they’re not immediately threatening anyone with lethal harm.
So, I ask, respectfully, how are suspected boat-borne alien drug traffickers on the high seas somehow not covered by that core American constitutional right when identified, targeted and killed by U.S. military aircraft packing deadly missiles? From Sept. 2 to this month, the U.S. military blew up 17 boats and one submarine carrying suspected drug smugglers in international waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea in the vicinity of the Americas, killing 70 people aboard, according to news reports. Overall, two suspects survived, but instead of being charged and prosecuted, they were, very curiously, repatriated to their home countries scot-free.
US Senate fails to pass war powers resolution blocking Trump attacks on Venezuela
Simple logic tells us that all of these suspects, living and dead, should have been considered innocent until found guilty in a U.S. court of law. Still, no evidence of their guilt has been presented by the administration, and only Republican members of Congress — pointedly no Democrats — have been selectively briefed on these attacks. Mystery abounds.
Apparently, South Dakota’s all-Republican congressional delegation, with the possible exception of Rep. Dusty Johnson, hasn’t gotten very exercised about this very questionable Trump grab of congressional power. Declaring and authorizing war is Congress’s constitutional authority, not the president’s, and it’s hard to imagine that attacking boats of sovereign nations and arbitrarily murdering their citizens are not overt acts of war.
I sent online queries to each of our state’s federal legislators — Rep. Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds — asking them why they had not strongly and publicly condemned these extrajudicial (that means without legal due process) killings of foreign nationals and the destruction of their boats by the American military. They responded cautiously in the main, despite Congress’ authority being blatantly and unconstitutionally usurped.
Sure, the administration has tried to justify its war-like behavior with convoluted, specious arguments that make common sense mainly to those trying to make them. At least Rep. Johnson expressed “concern” about the attacks in an emailed response to my question. No such concern was seconded by Sens. Thune and Rounds, who’ve both voted against resolutions to stop Trump’s deadly strikes.
Rep. Johnson wrote in a brief reply, “Thank you for contacting me about the United States’ actions against Venezuelan drug smugglers via boat. I am concerned with the precedent of these actions by the administration. I will continue to monitor the situation as we learn more.”
Sen. Thune’s office responded with a long recitation of administration talking points justifying the attacks and denigrating any congressional attempts to stop them. He wrote, in part:
“While much progress has been made, dangerous cartels continue to traffic narcotics into the United States. In response, President Trump has designated certain international cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. The president is authorized by Article II of the U.S. Constitution to defend against threats as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Consistent with this authority, President Trump has ordered strikes against drug smuggling vessels transiting international waters toward the United States.”
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For one thing, no evidence has been posited that any of these boats was bound for the U.S. or was carrying fentanyl, the main narcotic bugbear in the U.S., which mainly enters our country from Mexico. Also, President Trump simply labeling a group as “terrorists,” who he presumably believes can be killed on sight by the American military, doesn’t make it legally so. Drug cartels and their proxies are not “armed combatants” in any formal war sense.
Sen. Rounds didn’t respond to my query but told NBC News on Oct. 29 only that it was “unfortunate” congressional Democrats were not briefed along with Republicans about the administration’s continuing U.S. military airstrikes on suspected drug-running watercraft. He did not talk about the questionable legality of the attacks.
Autocrats only expand their power when those who share legal authority, like the current U.S. Congress, timidly surrender it to them.
