Families sue Trump administration over deadly US boat strike on Trinidadian men

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The families of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. military boat strike in October filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying the attack was unlawful.

Six men from Trinidad died in the strike on Oct. 14, 2025, including Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, according to the lawsuit.

Families sue Trump administration over deadly US boat strike on Trinidadian men (Video courtesy of Truth Social)

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights, on behalf of Lenore Burnley, who is Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, who is Samaroo’s sister.

The suit alleged that Joseph and Samaroo were returning to Trinidad on the way back from Venezuela when the boat they were on was targeted. The complaint asserts that both men were civilians — fishermen and farm workers — with no ties to drug trafficking or any other hostile activity.

“The October 14 attack that killed Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo was part of an unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign of lethal strikes against small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean,” the ACLU said in a news release.

“These premeditated and intentional killings — carried out outside of the context of armed conflict and in circumstances where targeted individuals do not pose a concrete, specific, and immediate threat of grave harm — violate domestic law prohibiting murder and international law prohibiting extrajudicial killing, or the arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of the right to life,” according to the release.

The suit mentions a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump from Oct. 14, 2025. It features footage of a boat being targeted during a strike.

“Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela,” Trump wrote at the time.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” Trump added. “The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla., as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Legal claims in the suit invoke the “Death on the High Seas Act,” a federal statute that permits wrongful death actions for deaths occurring on the high seas, as well as the “Alien Tort Statute,” which allows foreign nationals to bring civil claims in U.S. courts for violations of international law.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that neither Joseph nor Samaroo posed a “concrete, specific and imminent threat” that would justify lethal force and that less-lethal means could have been used to address any suspected wrongdoing. They are seeking compensation for the families and a judicial review of the legality of the deadly strikes.

“Mr. Joseph lived with his wife and their three children in Las Cuevas, Trinidad. To support his family, he often traveled to Venezuela to fish and for farmwork. On October 12, he called his wife to let her know that he had found a boat ride home from Venezuela and would see her in a couple of days. On October 14, his wife and mother saw social media reports of a boat strike; fearing that the boat was his, they repeatedly called him but got no reply. His family has not heard from him since,” according to the lawsuit.

“Like Mr. Joseph, Mr. Samaroo was working on a farm in Venezuela in the weeks before his death, taking care of goats and cows and making cheese. In an October 12 call with his sister, he told her he was returning home to Trinidad and would see her in a few days because their mother had fallen ill, and he wanted to help take care of her. That was the last time Ms. Korasingh or anyone else in the family heard from him,” the lawsuit notes.

The Trump administration has defended the series of strikes as part of efforts to combat drug trafficking. At least 125 people have been killed in the strikes, which started in September 2025.