President Donald Trump has now killed more than two dozen people on boats off the coast of Venezuela, claiming that the occupants are “narco-terrorists.”

Never mind the fact that drug smuggling is not a capital offense, the Constitution states that anyone accused of a crime is entitled to due process.

The president cannot just order extra-judicial executions by accusing people of a crime.

While the president, as commander-in-chief, does have broad powers to authorize

deadly force in war zones or when an entity poses an imminent threat, there is no way that the Caribbean Sea could be confused for an active combat zone, and it defies logic to argue that a small boat hundreds of miles from the U.S. posed an imminent threat.

If the federal government truly believed that these vessels were being used to smuggle drugs, there is zero reason they could not have used the Navy or Coast Guard to intercept them, arrest the crew, search the boat, and put the crew on trial.

But they did none of that. Instead, they murdered the crew. How many people will we let the president murder before we stop him?

Ross Kleinstuber

Ebensburg