Senate Republicans Block Bill to Rein in Trump’s Expanding “War on Cartels”

Senate Republicans have once again given President Donald Trump a green light to act unilaterally, this time, in his self-declared “war” against Latin American drug cartels.

On Wednesday, a Democratic-backed bill that aimed to curb Trump’s use of military force against cartels was voted down in the Senate, 48 to 51. The legislation, introduced by Senators Adam Schiff and Tim Kaine, sought to prevent the president from using the US military in “hostilities that had not been authorized by Congress,” including actions against “any non-state organization engaged in the promotion, trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs and other related activities.”

In short, it was an attempt to reassert Congress’s constitutional war powers, and it failed.

The bill also made a key point: the “designation of an entity as a foreign terrorist organization or specially designated global terrorist provides no legal authority for the President to use force” against it. But that hasn’t stopped Trump.

Over the past few months, the president has expanded his so-called “war on cartels,” authorizing US military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela that were allegedly involved in drug trafficking. His administration has even started labeling these attacks a “non-international armed conflict,” with those killed referred to as “unlawful combatants.”

That term carries heavy historical baggage. It’s the same phrase President George W. Bush used to justify detaining suspected al-Qaeda fighters outside the protections of the Geneva Convention during the early years of the “War on Terror.”

Democrats are calling it dangerous déjà vu.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island didn’t mince words:

“The unchecked strikes in the Caribbean risk destabilising the region, provoking confrontation with neighbouring governments and drawing our forces into yet another open-ended conflict … because of one man’s impulsive decision-making.”

Earlier this year, Trump designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, El Salvador’s MS-13, and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel as “foreign terrorist organizations,” giving him more leeway to use military force. In July, according to The New York Times, he quietly issued a secret directive to boost the US military presence across the Caribbean. Since September, at least four strikes have taken place, killing 21 people.

Critics say Trump’s approach blurs the line between law enforcement and warfare, while Congress, once again, looks powerless to stop him.

Meanwhile, as the Senate argued over war powers, lawmakers also failed to agree on a way to end the US government shutdown, now heading into its ninth day. Neither party’s spending bill got enough votes to pass, keeping hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed.