WASHINGTON, January 27, 2026 – Families are taking the U.S. goverment to court, alleging wrongful death and extrajudicial killings after a series of controversial boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The legal challenge, filed Tuesday, centers on the deaths of two Trinidadian men, Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, killed in a U.S. military operation on October 14, 2025. Is the U.S. military operating outside the bounds of international law?
Families Sue U.S. Over Deadly Boat Strikes
the lawsuit claims the attacks, targeting vessels suspected of ties to “designated terrorist organizations,” are unlawful and represent a dangerous expansion of executive power.
- The families are suing under the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute, seeking accountability for the deaths of their loved ones.
- Lawyers representing the families argue the strikes constitute extrajudicial killings, violating international law.
- The U.S.government maintains the operations were justified as part of a “non-international armed conflict” against terrorist groups.
- At least 126 civilians have been killed in 36 known attacks since September, according to reports.
The lawsuit, brought in U.S.federal admiralty court, argues that the campaign of attacks is “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful.” Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the center for Constitutional Rights, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Seton Hall Law School professor Jonathan Hafetz are representing the plaintiffs.
“Murder” on the High Seas
“This allows the families of victims to bring a claim for wrongful or negligent death committed on the high seas. And in our case, this is murder,” said Steven Watt, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. “It was a murder. These were both homicides. Both men were killed without any due process.”
“These were both homicides. Both men were killed without any due process.”
The October 14 strike in the Caribbean reportedly killed six civilians. Then-President Trump announced the operation on Truth Social, stating that a “lethal kinetic strike” had targeted a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” killing six “male narcoterrorists.”
Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, recalled the devastating news. “I don’t want to believe it. Not my child,” she said shortly after learning of her son’s death. “Somebody called us. They said he was on the boat.” burnley stated she had no message for Trump, adding, “I put it in God’s hands.”
Joseph and Samaroo were traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad when they were killed. The complaint argues, “Whatever that secret memorandum states, it cannot render the patently illegal killings lawful.”
“Using military force to kill Chad and Rishi violates the most elementary principles of international law,” said Hafetz. “People may not simply be gunned down by the government, and the Trump management’s claims to the contrary risk making America a pariah state.”
Reports indicate the U.S. military killed two survivors of an initial boat attack on September 2 in a follow-up strike, after they clung to wreckage for roughly 45 minutes before Adm.Frank Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a second attack.
U.S.southern Command has struggled to accurately track the number of attacks and casualties, and is now accepting casualty claims directly due to its inability to manage civilian harm reports.Trinidadian Foreign Minister Sean Sobers stated after the October 14 strike that the government had no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities.
