Jeff Stein

@jeffreystein.bsky.social

Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project. Views here are my own.

On today’s grim one-year anniversary of the Trump administration’s boat strikes campaign — which has snuffed out at least 227 lives — it’s more important than ever to insist that the strikes are not simply inhumane and ineffective, but illegal. My reflections in @thehill.com :

Trump’s boat strikes are illegal. Does it matter?

An ACLU attorney argues that the Trump administration’s boat strikes off the Venezuelan coast are illegal, immoral, and ineffective, citing the deaths of Trinidadian nationals Chad Joseph and…

thehill.com

“No armed conflict exists with the United States under international humanitarian law, since there is no military combat between two sides. The United States is simply killing individuals unilaterally without any legal basis or process . . . These killings are extrajudicial and unlawful.”

United States: UN experts demand end to unlawful killings at sea, as one-year death toll hits 223

GENEVA – UN experts* today demanded an end to unlawful killings by the United States of America, after at least 223 deaths at sea were recorded from US air strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific...

ohchr.org

The CIA reportedly bombed multiple civilian fishing boats off the Galápagos Islands earlier this year, and the public is only finding out now. Join us in demanding that Congress holds the Trump administration accountable NOW for carrying out these illegal, inhumane boat strikes.

Tell Congress: Stop President Trump's illegal boat strikes

Since September, the Trump administration has murdered nearly 90 people in international waters, ordering over 20 lethal strikes on civilian boats near Venezuela. Congress must conduct oversight and c...

aclu.org

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.

‘They are murder victims’: Senator suggests US strikes have killed people who weren’t involved in drug trafficking | CNN Politics

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House on Monday, following “a careful...

cnn.com

Since last year, the Trump administration has bombed dozens of civilian boats near the Caribbean, killing at least 221 people. This military campaign isn’t just illegal and immoral — it has also done nothing to stop drugs from entering the U.S. Congress must end this senseless killing spree.

67 boat strikes. 221 dead. The cocaine hasn't slowed, officials report.

The president says Operation Southern Spear has virtually ended drug trafficking by sea. Pentagon and DEA analysts have concluded otherwise.

washingtonpost.com

BREAKING: We’re suing to stop Florida’s baseless designation of the country’s leading Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and its Florida chapter as “domestic terrorist organizations.” If the court doesn’t intervene, they’ll be required to shut down in the state.

We're in court today demanding that the Trump administration disclose the still-secret memo it says justifies its illegal strikes on civilian boats in international waters. These strikes have now killed at least 214 people. The public deserves answers.

M

The Farm Bill the House passed includes provisions that would pre-empt state animal welfare laws like California's Prop 12. Nicholas Kristof recently condemned it. I'm glad. Yet, as I explain on the blog, Kristof is stuck on baby steps, even as he continues to say he cares about animals. 👇

Pigs, Dogs, and Nicholas Kristof

On Saturday,  New York Times  columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an essay condemning the "Save Our Bacon Act," which passed the House and is ...

dorfonlaw.org

NEW: Airwars-supported cross-border investigation identifies victims of US boat strikes. Journalist collective reveals victims are labourers, fishermen, cab drivers. Almost 200 have been killed since Sept 2025. No trial, no defence. 🔗 www.elclip.org/los-bombarde... #LosBombardeados

Los Bombardeados: sin derecho a la defensa

Una investigación que busca revelar quiénes son las víctimas y cuáles han sido los efectos colaterales de los bombardeos de Estados Unidos a supuestas narcolanchas en el Caribe y el Océano Pacífico de...

elclip.org

“That Rümeysa felt she had to return to Turkey to escape the shadow of state violence says everything you need to know about the state of free speech and academic freedom in this country,” said Ramya Krishnan, an attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/17/m...

Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts University grad arrested by ICE agents last year, returns to Turkey - The Boston Globe

The government and Öztürk’s legal team have jointly moved to dismiss her immigration proceedings.

bostonglobe.com

It’s a telling indicator of media desensitization that the US government’s ongoing program of murder on the high seas—which according to the perpetrators has killed fourteen (14) people this week— is no longer a subject for much serious or sustained news coverage.

Southcom website press releases page showing a near daily recent pace of “lethal kinetic strikes” on boats, each of which resulted in the intentional extrajudicial killing of multiple people outside of a recognized armed conflict.
Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Despite the administration’s rhetoric and bogus legal theories, the supposed armed conflict with “narco-terrorists” appears to be entirely make believe. Murder is the general term for premeditated killing outside of armed conflict.

On April 15, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed. 
@DeptofWar
 #OpSouthernSpear