Democrat lawmakers are increasingly turning up the heat on the Trump administration over its series of military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean since September, most recently focusing on alleged drug runners who survived an initial strike and were killed by a follow-up. 

«If the reports are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean,» Nevada Democrat Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December of strikes that killed suspected traffickers. 

The White House told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Democrat criticism echoes the «Maryland Man» hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was illegally residing in Maryland. 

Abrego Garcia received an outpouring of support from Democrat lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers traveling to El Salvador to meet with him, and media outlets describing him as a «Maryland man.» 

EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’

«’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail,» White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital. 

Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to «poison Americans.»

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

«These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,» Hegseth wrote in a post on X in November. «The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.»

Democrats have increasingly taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes. 

«You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,» Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters earlier in December of the strikes. 

While Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly shot back, «Going after survivors in the water, that is clearly not lawful.»

Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly’s and Himes’ respective offices for comment on the White House statement and the opioid epidemic in the U.S., but did not immediately receive replies. 

Rosen’s office told Fox News Digital on Friday in response: «If Donald Trump is serious about fighting drug smuggling, why did he pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States? And why did the Trump Administration threaten to cut millions of dollars in funding to address the opioid epidemic? The American people deserve to know.» 

Republicans such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked that video of the survivors allegedly showed individuals who wanted to «stay in the fight.»

«I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight,» Cotton said. 

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Capt. Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that he’s seeing «utter hypocrisy from a party of theater kids who just don’t care about the lives being lost to the drug trade» when asked about Democrats sounding off about the strikes. 

«For nearly a decade, Democrats lauded President Obama as the ‘Prince of Peace,’ even though his bomb strikes Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia killed hundreds of civilians. None of those countries were at war with the United States or targeted American civilians,» Murphy said, referring how former President Barack Obama faced war-crimes accusations from critics over his administration’s drone strikes and civilian casualties in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan. 

Murphy formerly served as the head of public diplomacy for the President’s Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine in the Trump administration before launching his Senate campaign earlier in the fall. He is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, as well as a veteran of the Afghanistan war, where he was awarded the Meritorious Defense Service Medal and the Afghan campaign medal, among others. 

«But when President Trump pushes his own effort to stop human smugglers and drug dealers who have done untold harm and killed millions of Americans, they want to place the President and Secretary of War on a show trial,» he said. 

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)

CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT

The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to end the flow of narcotics into the U.S. from nations including China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its attention toward Venezuela, which is led by dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. is engaged in an «armed conflict» with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations. 

The administration has defended the strikes as necessary to curb the flow of opioid deaths in the U.S., while experts have also said the pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely aimed to also oust Maduro as leader of the oil-rich nation. 

HEGSETH DID NOT ISSUE ‘KILL THEM ALL’ ORDER DURING VENEZUELA STRIKES, ADMIRAL TELLS CONGRESS

The CDC found that an estimated 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999-2023. The opioid crisis is viewed as unfolding in three waves, beginning in the 1990s with the increase in prescriptions to opioids, the CDC reported, followed by the second wave that began in 2010, when heroin overdoses spiked, and finally the current third wave of deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. 

The crisis has slowed from its high of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the first annual decline in deaths since 2018, according to CDC data. There were an estimated 79,358 opioid deaths in 2023, according to CDC data. 

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has grown in popularity and contributed to a spike in opioid deaths in the U.S. in recent years.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As of Thursday, an estimated 86 suspected drug traffickers have died in the strikes. 

Fentanyl has long been on the medical market to treat individuals suffering with severe pain, but has since become an illegal manufactured substance by transnational criminal organizations, such as cartels. 

Trump vowed in his 2022 announcement that he would run for re-election to the White House that cartels would face the U.S. wrath over overdose deaths upon his return to the Oval Office.  

RAND PAUL JOINS DEMS ON ‘WAR POWERS RESOLUTION’ CLAIMING TRUMP ADMIN COULD SOON STRIKE VENEZUELAN TERRITORY

«We will wage war upon the cartels and stop the fentanyl and deadly drugs from killing 200,000 Americans per year,» he said in November of 2024, previewing his administration. 

Several Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration has been well within its rights to act against Maduro’s regime. They added that they’re eager for more information after several strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s heightened rhetoric targeting Maduro.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing increasing pressure from the U.S. as the Trump administ (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

«These boats, they’re stacked up with bags of white powder, that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs too,» Trump said in September. «Every boat kills 25,000.»

Democrats in past decades have promoted fiery rhetoric focused on taking out foreign narco-terrorist, including then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden calling for «another D-Day» to end the war on drugs in a 1989 address criticizing Republican President George H.W. Bush’s administration for not taking strong enough action on the crack cocaine epidemic.

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«Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it,» Biden said in the 1989 speech.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that the School District of Philadelphia needs to address the mushrooming spread of antisemitism in classrooms.

The alleged anti-Jewish climate in the nation’s eighth-largest school district in the city, nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love, has recently sparked a congressional investigation into its education system that is reportedly infected with hatred of Jews and Israel.

Shapiro’s spokesperson, Rosie Lapowsky, told Fox News Digital that, «Governor Shapiro takes a back seat to no one on these issues, and as he has repeatedly spoken out about, antisemitism and this kind of hateful rhetoric is unacceptable and has no place in Pennsylvania — especially not in our classrooms. This is a matter the Governor has made clear the district needs to take very seriously.»

PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS PARTNER WITH MUSLIM ADVOCACY GROUP FOR GUIDES ON ‘AMERICAN JEWS’ AND TEACHING 9/11

Fox News Digital conducted interviews with parents and teachers from the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and presented the findings, along with a November House Committee on Education and the Workforce investigation notice into antisemitism in Philadelphia public schools to the governor’s office.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is probing «whether there was or is a hostile environment against Jewish K-12 students,» according to its letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

The congressional letter stated, «The Committee is deeply concerned that SDP is failing to uphold its obligations under Title VI. Since October 7, 2023, the Committee has received allegations that SDP is rife with antisemitic incidents, including allegations of teachers spreading antisemitism in the classroom and SDP approving antisemitic walkouts that isolate Jewish students.»

The letter continued that «Because of these alleged failures, SDP entered into a federally mandated corrective action plan with the U.S. Department of Education in December 2024: however, according to press and whistleblower reports, antisemitic incidents have continued to proliferate since the plan.»

YC STUDENTS EXPOSE ‘EXTREMIST’ PROFESSORS FOSTERING CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM AT MAJOR UNIVERSITIES

Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at the Celebration of Freedom Ceremony during Wawa Welcome America on July 04, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

Fox News Digital obtained messages and a document from a private Signal phone messaging group for Philadelphia Educators for Palestine. The group formulated a «Grounding Commitments» document that defends all Palestinian «resistance.» Critics say much of Palestinian resistance includes violence and also terrorism.

According to the Philadelphia Educators for Palestine, «All resistance is righteous. We reject any false equivalence between the violent systems that oppress us and our responses to them.»

Signal text messages stated the anti-Israel group has recruited school children to advance their anti-Jewish state agenda. According to district policy, educators should not be communicating with students on social media platforms. «In order to maintain a professional and appropriate relationship with students, District employees should not communicate with students who are currently enrolled in District schools on personal social media sites,» states SDP policy.

Fox News Digital reached out to Philadelphia Educators for Palestine for a comment.

TEACHER UNION SENDS MAP ERASING ISRAEL TO ITS MILLIONS OF MEMBERS FOR ‘INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY’

Mika Hackner, director of research at the North American Values Institute, told Fox News Digital, «This is a shocking example of public school teachers knowingly misusing their position, and going against their own district’s policies, to encourage political activism in their students. Inviting high schoolers into a private Signal chat and involving them in discussions and events which promote political violence is just beyond the pale. The School District of Philadelphia must take appropriate action.»

Multiple Jewish parents and teachers spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from anti-Israel teachers and the School District of Philadelphia.

One Jewish parent said, «There are teachers and administrators who are perpetuating Jew-hate,» adding that «[Ismael] Jimenez uses his public social media to create Jew-hate.» Ismael Jimenez is the director of social studies curriculum for the SDP.

Sunrise light hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress is set to begin Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The congressional letter also references Jimenez as an SPD senior administrator who «has been widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups in light of his ‘pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence. In a recent example, after the murder of two Israeli embassy workers and the antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, the senior administrator wrote, ‘The groups who align themselves with American savageness should not be surprised when the savageness is turned on you.»

NATION’S LARGEST TEACHERS UNION VOTES TO SEVER TIES WITH ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE OVER ISRAEL SUPPORT

According to the congressional letter, «Today, SDP employs numerous educators who allegedly promote antisemitic content in their classrooms. One such teacher has allegedly threatened Jewish parents and students online. She and other Philadelphia educators also allegedly use lessons from an effort called Teaching Palestine, whose class materials rationalize terrorist violence and advocate for the destruction of Israel.»

The congressional letter highlights the actions of the teachers and the administrator. One who was allegedly «Threatening Jewish parents and students» was identified as Kaziah Ridgeway. Other teachers allegedly used lessons from «Teaching Palestine,» according to social media posts and the letter. 

A Philadelphia school teacher told Fox News Digital that the prevailing situation in SDP is «being complacent and encouraging pro-Palestinian bias in the district. There is no prescription to counter antisemitism in school.»

Shelly Robinson, a Philadelphia school teacher who retired in 2021 and taught at Northeast High School, the largest high school in Pennsylvania, told Fox News Digital, that at one at multicultural fair, «there was a map on stage at school and there was no Israel.» Robinson, who graduated from Northeast and has deep contacts to the school, said a «Muslim student group started selling buttons stating ‘From the River to the Sea’ after Oct. 7. Things got really bad for Jewish teachers at Northeast after Oct. 7.»

The Anti Defamation League described the saying as «an antisemitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations.»

Memorials at the site of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024.  (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and slaughtered over 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans.

Robinson recalled a professional development trainer who told a student group called «No Place for Hate» that they «should stop promoting white heroes named Shakespeare and Einstein, and said we should promote refugees.»

When Robinson noted that the German physicist Albert Einstein was a refugee who fled Nazi Germany, the development specialist for teachers said, «But he was a Jew.» Robinson said, «I started to see what was going on in the school district and had been going on for 20 years.»

Jimenez and Ridgeway, who are also reportedly members of Philadelphia Educators for Palestine, declined to respond to Fox News Digital press queries.

While Shapiro readily called out the situation, other leaders in the state preferred to pass the buck.

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Leah Uko, a spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, told Fox News Digital that «This is a matter with the School District of Philadelphia, not City government. We have no comment.»

A spokesperson for Dr. Tony Watlington, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, told Fox News Digital that «It is the policy of the School District of Philadelphia to refrain from commenting on active investigations.»

El jabalí es una especie introducida en la Argentina que se considera plaga porque destruye cultivos, desplaza animales nativos y daña los suelos.

Sus poblaciones aprovecharon la suspensión de controles durante la pandemia por el coronavirus para aumentar su territorio en el Parque Nacional El Palmar, en la provincia de Entre Ríos. Cuando el Parque cerró en 2020, el programa de control del jabalí, que había resultado ser exitoso, se detuvo por completo.

Los animales tuvieron la oportunidad de expandirse por toda el área protegida.

Científicos del Conicet, la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires y la Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego comprobaron cómo la población de jabalíes aumentó y el daño a las palmeras yatay se multiplicó en tiempo récord.

Publicaron los resultados de su estudio en la revista Biological Invasions. Allí detallaron que el avance de los animales fuera notorio. La presencia de rastros de jabalí pasó del 15 % al 58 % en apenas un año.

El aumento fue tan fuerte que alertó sobre lo difícil que resulta volver a controlar a una especie invasora tras solo un año de pausa.

El trabajo fue realizado por Andrés de Miguel, Gabriela Nicosia, Augusto Fumagalli, Romina de Diego, Lucía Rodríguez-Planes y Ricardo Gürtler.

El jabalí se encuentra en la lista 100 de las especies exóticas invasoras más dañinas del mundo de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza.

En muchas provincias argentinas, el jabalí es una especie invasora capaz de causar estragos. Revuelve el suelo, consume plántulas y compite con animales nativos.

Para evitarlo, como informó Infobae, las autoridades de la Administración de Parques Nacionales habían implementado un programa de control a largo plazo para mantener a raya la población de jabalíes y proteger las palmeras yatay, el símbolo del lugar.

En 2020 el Gobierno nacional estableció un confinamiento masivo por la pandemia para reducir la movilidad de las personas y prevenir la transmisión del virus, como lo hicieron también otros países.

Esa medida obligó a frenar toda actividad de campo en El Palmar. Sin la supervisión, los jabalíes ganaron espacio y generaron más daño en las palmeras y a la cobertura vegetal.

Tras la liberación del confinamiento, los investigadores evaluaron los efectos de la interrupción del control de la plaga.

El equipo también analizó factores que podrían influir, como la sequía. Por eso, monitorearon el parque en distintas estaciones, buscaron rastros de jabalí y palmeras dañadas para comparar los cambios en el tiempo.

Durante cinco años, el equipo recorrió El Palmar y tomó muestras en parcelas fijas para detectar la actividad de los jabalíes.

La frecuencia de parcelas con rastros de jabalí aumentó cuatro veces un año después de la interrupción del programa de control, mientras el suelo removido subió seis veces.

Estos datos, registrados tras el confinamiento, muestran lo rápido que el daño de la especie invasora puede regresar.

El suelo y las palmeras fueron los que más sufrieron. Los investigadores detectaron que la superficie promedio de suelo removido por los jabalíes con sus hocicos creció exponencialmente tras abril de 2019, justo cuando se suspendieron los controles habituales.

El estudio también encontró que en invierno, época en la que hay menos comida, los jabalíes arrasaban más el suelo. Donde el animal deja rastros, suele estar el daño.

La sequía agravó la situación, ya que la falta de lluvias concentró la búsqueda de alimento en algunos sectores. Aunque los científicos advirtieron que si el clima cambia, el daño tal vez no sea igual.

El daño ocurrido mientras no hubo vigilancia muestra que la interrupción del control trae consecuencias difíciles de revertir.

“Cuando se retomó la vigilancia, no fue sencillo volver al equilibrio anterior. Sin embargo, desde el retorno del programa de control en el Parque Nacional desde el 2021 se logró nuevamente controlar la abundancia de los jabalíes”, resaltó el científico.

“Nuestro estudio confirma la capacidad del jabalí de explotar rápidamente discontinuidades en las acciones de manejo”, dijo a Infobae el doctor Gurtler, a cargo del Laboratorio de Eco‑Epidemiología de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la UBA.

El equipo sugiere que las tareas de control no deben interrumpirse, ni siquiera por períodos cortos. Una pausa puede devolver el parque a los niveles de daño observados hace décadas.

“Si se considera que en provincias como Río Negro, Córdoba, Entre Ríos y Buenos Aires aumentó el interés en controlar a los jabalíes para reducir las pérdidas que generan, los resultados de nuestro estudio sirven para considerar qué pasa cuando se deja de hacer lo que sí funcionaba”, expresó Gurtler.

Los científicos reconocieron que tienen la dificultad para comparar con áreas sin jabalí y que deberían recopilar aún más datos.

Pero consideraron que es fundamental mejorar la inversión en el monitoreo y el control de las especies invasoras.

La lección que dejan los datos del estudio publicado en Biological Invasions es clara: solo el manejo constante controla a las especies invasoras y cuida el funcionamiento de ecosistemas únicos como el de El Palmar.

La introducción del jabalí en Argentina comenzó a principios del siglo XX, cuando los primeros ejemplares se llevaron al coto de caza San Huberto (actual Reserva Provincial Parque Luro) en la provincia de La Pampa.

Entre 1917 y 1922, algunos ejemplares se trasladaron a la estancia Collun-Có, en Neuquén. Se produjeron escapes accidentales que posibilitaron la dispersión de los animales hacia los parques nacionales Lanín y Nahuel Huapi.

“Las poblaciones de jabalíes habrían aumentado en todo el país durante los últimos años, aunque faltarían monitoreos precisos. Sabemos que tienen una alta tasa de dispersión considerando los nuevos registros que aparecen en diferentes localidades del país cada año”, resaltó al ser consultado por Infobae el doctor Sebastián Ballari, biólogo e investigador del Conicet en el Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi.

“Son animales con una tasa de reproducción alta que se adaptan a todo tipo de ambientes. Como aún no existen planes de manejo a nivel nacional o provincial para su control, las poblaciones de jabalíes siguen creciendo de manera sostenida año tras año”, comentó.