FILE PHOTO: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on, as President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

A new classified Justice Department memo announced Tuesday that U.S. troops are not liable in the deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in Latin America, according to the Washington Post, and critics are raising red flags.

"The decision to pursue an opinion, drafted in July, reflects the heightened concerns within the government raised by senior civilian and military lawyers that such strikes would be illegal," the Post reports.

"The opinion also states that drug cartels are selling drugs to finance a campaign of violence in the U.S. in what appears to be an effort to shoehorn the fight against cartels into a law-of-war framework. Analysts are skeptical of this logic," says Post repoter John Hudson on X.

"It also argues the U.S. is in a 'non-international armed conflict' waged under Article II authorities," writes Post journalist JM Rieger on X.

The U.S. military has conducted at least 19 strikes in the Caribbean against alleged drug-smuggling vessels, including speedboats and a semi-submersible, with a death toll of 76, according to the Post.

The Pentagon deems this as compliant with the law.

"Current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law,” with all actions in “complete compliance with the law of armed conflict," says Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

Experts disagree.

"By framing the military campaign as a war, the administration is able to argue that murder statutes do not apply," Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group and a former Pentagon lawyer, tells the Post.

“It sounds like an admission that there is no legal basis for these strikes," says Adam Isacson, the Director for Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), as reported by the Post's Hudson on X.

One military lawyer who goes by the name AspalsLegal on X writes, "I wonder if the courts would agree. How does the law of armed conflict apply to drug smugglers?"

The president, Harrison argues, “is fabricating a war so that he can get around the restrictions on lethal force during peacetime, like murder statutes.”