UR MAG

The U.S. military knew the identities of the 11 men killed in aSept. 2 boat strike in the Caribbeanand approved the hit because the crewmembers apparently had loose ties to a drug cartel, the military commander who led the operation told lawmakers last week, according to two people with knowledge of the briefing.

In a Dec. 4 classified briefing with a select group of lawmakers, Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley, who has been on the hot seat for weeks due to his role in the attack, said the military deemed the people on board legitimate targets because some had contact with members of drug cartels the Trump administration has declared foreign terrorist organizations, the two people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Bradley did not provide lawmakers with documentation that the boat carried drugs. He also stated that follow-up strikes sank the wreckage of the bombed boat, destroying possible evidence of drug trafficking, the people said.

US military conducts deadly boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers

NBC previously reportedthat the 11 men were on an internal list of "narco-terrorists" who were cleared to be targeted.

Survivors couldn't radio for help

Bradley, the commander of Special Operations Command, has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after the Trump administration confirmed that he ordered a second strike on the wreckage of the boat roughly 40 minutes later, killing two people who had survived the first attack. The Washington Postfirst reportedthe strike on the survivors.

In previous briefings with lawmakers, Pentagon officials rationalized that the second strike was necessary because the two men clinging to their demolished ship were trying to radio for backup, or for another vessel to collect the drugs,CNN and other outletshave reported. However, Bradley revealed during the Dec. 4 briefing that the survivors did not have the means to radio for help, one of the people with knowledge of the briefing confirmed.

More:Who is the US killing in its boat attacks? Hegseth won't say, and lawmakers want answers

The Sept. 2 strike was the first of at least 22 known strikes by the Trump administration on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed at least 87 people. It marked the beginning of a new policy of killing suspected drug traffickers that has come under fire from critics who say it is illegal and needlessly inhumane. Critics say the Trump administration cannot carry out such strikes without formally declaring war.

The strikes have not been approved by Congress. The boats hit were thousands of miles from trafficking routes for fentanyl, which flows into the U.S. from Mexico. Bradley told lawmakers that the vessel struck Sept. 2 was headed to Suriname on South America's east coast, according tonews reports.

"Since the Department of War began striking these vessels, we have consistently said that our intelligence did indeed confirm these boats were trafficking narcotics destined for America," Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to USA TODAY. "That same intelligence also confirms that the individuals involved in these drug operations were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment."

"Every Presidentially directed strike conducted against these Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTOs) is taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and to protect the American homeland from narco-terrorism. These strikes send (a clear) message directly to the narco-terrorists: you will find no safe harbor if you continue to poison our people with deadly drugs."

Boat crews were low-level 'foot soldiers'

In decades past, the U.S. treated drug trafficking as a law enforcement issue, and the Coast Guard was assigned to interdict boats carrying drugs, issuing arrests and seizing contraband.

James Saenz, who served as the Pentagon's deputy secretary for counternarcotics and stabilization during the Biden administration, said that during his tenure, the department did not have the intelligence network in place to pick up a detailed profile of the people aboard drug boats like those targeted in recent months.

"If we wanted to know the crew identities, it would take significant effort and a lot of time before we would be able to develop that much information with confidence," he said.

"Leaders (of drug cartels) and people with unique skills are not the ones riding these boats," he said. "It's traditionally low-level foot soldiers" on board.

More:Trump says Venezuela sends US lethal drugs, but data tells different story

The Trump administration has painted its campaign of killing suspected drug traffickers as a new War on Terror, comparing the toll of deadly drugs to the threat posed by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. PresidentDonald Trumpdesignatedeight Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in February.Experts have told USA TODAYthat designation is primarily an economic tool and does not give the administration additional authority to target affiliated people with military force.

The Pentagon said in a notice to some lawmakers this fall that the president determined the U.S. isin a "non-international armed conflict"with drug cartels, whose actions are an "armed attack" against the country.

Critics, including lawyers and former military officials, have said that the comparison does not hold water.

"This is summary execution," said Wes Bryant, a former senior Pentagon adviser on mitigating civilian harm during military operations. "Somewhere in the chain, someone knows that this is either blatantly illegal or somewhere near illegal."

Bryant formerly headed the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, whichworked to improvethe military's procedures for minimizing and reporting civilian casualties. The Trump administrationdismantled itin the spring.

When the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign againstHouthi forces in Yemensoon after, it became clear that the Pentagon's threshold of tolerance for civilian deaths had been drastically raised, Bryant said. At least 238 civilians, including 24 children, were killed in the less-than-two-month operation, according to theYemen Data Project.

"Everything that the U.S. had been working towards – I had been working towards – in hand with special operations command, a lot of that was thrown out the window," Bryant said.

Bryant, a retired Air Force master sergeant who worked with special operations on counterterrorism missions during the War on Terror, said the boat strikes had further entrenched the administration's disregard of civilian life. It would be hard to confirm the identity of a couple of individuals, let alone 11 people on a boat, he said.

"This is so severe (that) at this point, the Trump administration needs to release the names of every single person," he said.

Building a 'pattern of life'

Mark McCurley, a retired Air Force pilot who flew many drone missions in the Middle East, said the military is likely observing boats traversing the Caribbean or Eastern Pacific using satellites or aircraft to build a "pattern of life." Common routes and travel times for boats that are believed to be carrying drugs could be compiled to "build that picture," he said. The military may be using aircraft to surveil boats as soon as they leave the harbor and then firing on them once they enter international waters, he added.

Establishing a "pattern of life" was essential to building a case that a target was legally justified, said McCurley, who also flew surveillance missions of counternarcotics operations in Latin America in the 1990s.

During the War on Terror, he said, the military would invest significant effort in verifying the "identity and intent" of a potential target.

"The justification is pretty thin," he said. "How is a boat carrying a product to Suriname a direct action against the U.S. or a direct threat to our existence?"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Deadly boat strike OK due to cartel ties, commander told lawmakers

New US citizens use handheld fans to take shade from the sun during a naturalization ceremony at George Washington's Mount Vernon in Mount Vernon, Virginia, US, on Friday, July 4, 2025. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images Credit - Kent Nishimura—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jane was one month away from her naturalization ceremony, the day she would swear the Oath of Allegiance to the United States and become a citizen. It would mark the end of her decade-long journey as animmigrantsince arriving from the Republic of Congo in 2015.

Then, out of the blue, she received a letter in the mail informing her that theceremony had been cancelled.

"I followed the rules, paid the full fee, waited years, passed every step; I was at the finish line pretty much," Jane, who is using a pseudonym to protect her identity because she fears speaking out could affect her case, tells TIME. "Having my ceremony canceled at the last minute makes me feel anxious, powerless."

Read more:Trump Has Made Sweeping Changes to Immigration Since the D.C. Shooting. Here's What We Know

Jane is not alone. Lawyers for legal aid groups and individuals seeking citizenship have reported across the country that their naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies have been cancelled, some at the last moment as they waited in line.

These cancellations, at the last stage of a bureaucratic journey that can last for years, have caused chaos and confusion for thousands of immigrants who did everything by the book.

The cancellations stem from sweeping newrestrictions on legal immigrationintroduced by President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the killing of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., particularly targeting immigrants hailing from the 19 countries listed in aJune White House proclamationthat imposed new travel and visa restrictions on countries "of concern."

Immediately following the shooting, Trump said in a post onTruth Socialthat he would "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries" and "terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions," and on December 2, USCISannounceda hold and review of all pending immigration benefit requests for applicants born in one of the 19 countries "of concern."

Gail Breslow, Executive Director of Project Citizenship, which provides legal services and assistance to immigrants in Massachusetts, tells TIME that one of her clients turned up to their ceremony on the day of the event only to be disappointed.

"As people were arriving, they were being asked what their country of origin was. And the woman from Haiti was, along with people from Haiti, Venezuela, and other so-called travel ban countries, pulled out of line, and told that their own ceremony for that day was canceled," she says.

"There's a tremendous amount of confusion, there's a tremendous amount of fear, there's a tremendous amount of anxiety," Breslow says. "We've had clients ask us what they did wrong. Why is this happening to them? We, unfortunately, at this time, don't have good answers to give people about what is going to happen next."

Breslow emphasizes that the people whose ceremonies are canceled have already been accepted for citizenship—the ceremony is supposed to be a formality.

Jane and all those whose ceremonies were canceled were within reach of a long-held dream; now they are stuck in limbo, unsure whether they will ever become U.S. citizens.

USCIS told TIME in a statement that it has "paused all adjudications for aliens from high-risk countries while USCIS works to ensure that all aliens from these countries are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible."

"The pause will allow for a comprehensive examination of all pending benefit requests for aliens from the designated high-risk countries. The safety of the American people always comes first," the statement added.

The Trump Administration has argued that the new changes are needed to allow extra "vetting" of immigrants, but anyone accepted has already undergone a years-long process. To become a naturalized citizen, applicants must have been lawful permanent residents for three to five years, meet the continuous residence and physical presence requirements, demonstrate "good moral character," and pass the English and U.S. civics tests.

The oath-taking ceremony occurs at the very end of the process, after the applicants' interview and USCIS approves the application. It is often an emotional occasion, as newly declared citizens are given small U.S. flags and take photographs with their families to celebrate a new chapter in their lives.

"It's one step removed from denaturalizing someone. Literally, you receive your naturalization certificate at these ceremonies," Breslow says. "And so the act of pulling the rug out from under people at this point in the process is just unspeakably cruel."

Hasan Shafiqullah, Supervising Attorney at the Legal Aid Society's Immigration Law Unit, says that although this is likely "just a pause" on naturalization, and not a denial of these cases "straight out," the chaos and fear are clear, and it can leave these prospective citizens in "limbo" for an extended period of time.

"The stakes are very high, and what immigrants get from these oath ceremonies are considerable," Shafiqullah says. After the ceremony, citizens can apply for a U.S. passport and for their parents, siblings, and fiancé to come to the United States. It also prevents deportation. Although their cases could be reopened and rescheduled after vetting, or potentially reopened under a "friendlier" Administration, the damage is "incredibly problematic," he adds.

These legal aid groups make clear that this is not an isolated incident that discourages people from becoming citizens, but rather another move in a series of moves from the Trump Administration that targets not just "illegal immigration" that it has claimed to focus its immigration enforcement efforts on, but legal pathways altogether, especially this fall.

As of October, USCIS requires all application fees to be paid via electronic payments, even though,by its own estimates,over 90% of USCIS payments are made by check or money order. USCIS announced in September that the civics exam required for naturalization will bemore complex and more subjective, a month after the Administration introducedmore stringent criteriafor assessing "good moral character" in citizenship applications.

"It's been one thing after the other to discourage people and to thwart their efforts to become U.S. citizens," Breslow says.

Allison Cutler, Supervising Attorney for New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)'s Immigrant Protection Unit, notes that cancellations have been happening for months for their green card applicants, a move that she says leaves her clients in an even more vulnerable position."When you have a naturalization ceremony that's canceled, you're still in the exact situation that you were before, right? You still have your green card and you're eligible to reapply for citizenship in the future," she says. "But for these green card interviews, it's different. It leaves them in a more vulnerable situation legally, where it actually allows ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to more easily reopen your case before the judge."

Shafiqullah says that although the ceremony cancellations have been in direct response to the National Guard shooting, he believes the new restrictions have "nothing to do with the shooting," and more to do with the expressed denaturalization priorities of the Administration:

"I think all these policies were pre-written and sitting on a shelf waiting for the perfect pretext, and the shooting gave them the pretext to roll all these things out."

Contact usatletters@time.com.

Self-driving Waymo taxis have gone viral for negative reasons involving the death of a beloved San Francisco bodega cat and pulling an illegal U-turn in front of police who were unable to issue a ticket to a nonexistent driver.

But this week, the self-driving taxis are the bearer of happier news after a San Francisco woman gave birth in a Waymo.

The mother was on her way to the University of California, San Francisco medical center Monday when she delivered inside the robotaxi, said a Waymo spokesperson in a statement Wednesday. The company said its rider support team detected "unusual activity" inside the vehicle and called to check on the rider as well as alert 911.

RELATED STORY |Waymo self-driving car gets pulled over by police for an illegal U-turn

Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet, declined to elaborate on how the vehicle knew something was amiss.

The taxi and its passengers arrived safely at the hospital ahead of emergency services. Jess Berthold, a UCSF spokesperson, confirmed the mother and child were brought to the hospital. She said the mother was not available for interviews.

Waymo said the vehicle was taken out of service for cleaning after the ride. While still rare, this was not the first baby delivered in one of its taxis, the company said.

RELATED STORY |Viral Waymo crashes put driverless cars in the spotlight

"We're proud to be a trusted ride for moments big and small, serving riders from just seconds old to many years young," the company said.

The driverless taxis have surged in popularity even as they court higher scrutiny. Riders can take them on freeways and interstates around San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

In September, a Waymo pulled a U-turn in front of a sign telling drivers not to do that, and social media users dumped on the San Bruno Police because state law prohibited officers from ticketing the car. In October, a popular tabby cat named Kit Kat known to pad around its Mission District neighborhood was crushed to death by a Waymo.

RELATED STORY |Waymo driverless taxi kills beloved bodega cat, KitKat, in San Francisco

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents used pepper spray to push through an angry crowd that blocked their vehicles as they checked identifications in a heavily Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis on Tuesday, amid the Trump administration'songoing crackdowntargeting the community.

City Council Member Jamal Osman, a Somali American who represents the neighborhood, witnessed the confrontation, as did an Associated Press videographer.

Minnesota's Somali community — the largest in the U.S. —has been on edgethe past couple of weeks since President Donald Trump said ina social media postThanksgiving night that he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for them.

It is not clear how many Somali community members have been arrested, temporarily detained or asked to show documents aspart of the crackdown, which has also netted people of other nationalities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said via email that they made no arrests in the neighborhood Tuesday, but provided no further details.

Osman said armed ICE agents went to East African restaurants in the neighborhood Tuesday, closed the doors and demanded people's IDs. They found only U.S. citizens and made no arrests, Osman said.

"Luckily everyone had their passport, because I've been telling them to have their passport with them," Osman said.

After checking the IDs of some people stopped at random on the street and temporarily detaining at least one U.S. citizen, Osman said, the agents went in seven to 10 vehicles to a nearby city-owned senior housing complex. There, he said, a group of mostly white young people he called "heroes" blew whistles to sound the alarm and confronted the agents, who responded with pepper spray.

"Thank God so many people showed up there," Osman said. "(The agents) couldn't get out of there because people showed up with their cars and whistles."

Osman said he saw people suffering from the effects of pepper spray. He also said he spoke with one young Somali American who was dragged to a vehicle, detained and taken to an ICE detention center. There, officials finally looked at his U.S. passport, fingerprinted him, and released him but told him to find his own way home, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) away in snowy weather.

"I just don't know what they accomplished today other than the chaos," Osman said.

Trumpfurther stoked tensionslast week when hecalled Somalis "garbage"and said he does not want them in the country. At the same time, federal agents launched the crackdown targeting Minnesota Somalis.

The president's moves have drawn denunciations from leaders of the Somali community andDemocrats including Gov. Tim Walz, amid relative silence from top state Republicans.

About 84,000 of the260,000 Somalisin the countrylive in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the overwhelming majority of them U.S. citizens. Almost 58% were born in the U.S., and 87% of those born elsewhere are naturalized citizens.

A new website launched by the Department of Homeland Securitylists at least six Somalisarrested in Minnesota in recent weeks. The site says it is "highlighting the worst of worst criminal aliens" arrested by ICE to show how agents are "fulfilling President Trump's promise and carrying out mass deportations."

ICE released a statement Friday listingthree other arrested Somaliswho did not appear on the website, along with people of other nationalities who it said were arrested in Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge. ICE said they had all been convicted of crimes including sexual abuse minors, robbery and domestic assault.

"Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey protected these criminals at the expense of the safety of Americans," the statement said. "President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem have a clear message for criminal illegal aliens: LEAVE NOW. If you don't, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you."

A hiker in Utah's Arches National Park became trapped Sunday in something most people have seen only in old movies or TV shows — quicksand.

The hiker, who was not injured, was trapped in the substance for several freezing hours, stuck up to his thighs in a canyon area Sunday morning, his rescuers said.

There was a quicksand case in the same area, about 2 miles away, in 2014, but Sunday's call at around 7:15 a.m. was still a surprise, Grand County Search and Rescue incident commander John Marshall said.

"The page went off and I kind of shook my head and said: 'Did I hear that correctly? Somebody is stuck in quicksand?'" Marshall recalled in an interview Tuesday.

Rescuers used a ladder and vehicle traction boards to reach the hiker, Marshall said. The boards allowed rescuers to work next to the trapped hiker safely, he said.

Quicksand can trap people quickly, Marshall said, but because of the body's natural buoyancy, people rarely sink deeper than their waist.

"It's got a good bite. The more people struggle, the deeper they go," Marshall said. "So, one or two footsteps into that sand is really all it needs to initiate that initial stuck factor."

Video captured the hiker's rescue. Searchers used a drone to help pinpoint his location.

It was a frigid morning, around 21 degrees, rescue technician Jake Blackwelder recalled.

"Where this person was, there was just no sun shining down in this canyon area," Blackwelder said. "And so I was just taken aback by just how cold the ambient temperature was."

Blackwelder contacted the hiker from a cliff. The man was trapped in a wash — which like a riverbed that is mostly dry but channels water when it rains or there is other moisture — and the team made a small scramble down to reach the area by foot, he said.

Rescuers used the traction boards and backboards to spread out their weight so that they didn't also become stuck, and they helped dig him out, Blackwelder said.

"One of the first things that we said was just, 'Hey, how's it going?'" Blackwelder recalled. "He was pretty tired and stuck and ready to get out."

The man was not a novice hiker, telling rescuers that he had hiked trails in other parts of the country, as well as in Utah, Blackwelder said.

"He just got into some innocuous-looking wet sand that happened to be quicksand," Blackwelder said. "And so for him, I think he was as surprised as we were to get the call."

In 2019, a hiker at a different national park in Utah, Zion National Park,became trapped in quicksand for a dayuntil he was rescued and eventually airlifted during snowy weather. That hiker was trapped up to his knee, park officials said, and the woman he was with hiked three hours to get a cell signal so she could call for help, officials said at the time.