Family of Men Killed in Venezuelan Boat Strikes Sue Trump Admin for Damages

“The line remains dead to this day”

The mother and sister of two Trinidadian citizens killed by the Trump administration during a mid-October boat strike have sued the government in federal court, seeking “monetary, compensatory and punitive damages.”

Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, lived in Las Cuevas, “a small fishing community” in Trinidad and Tobago. Both often traveled to neighboring Venezuela for fishing and farming work, according to the lawsuit. Both were killed in a strike on October 14.

“[Joseph’s mother] and Mr. Joseph’s wife repeatedly called Mr. Joseph’s cell phone, but the line was disconnected,” the lawsuit states, after the women learned of the strike. “The line remains disconnected to this day.”

The last time anyone had heard from Samaroo, he had sent his little sister a photo of himself in a life jacket, getting ready for the trip back to Las Cuevas.

Both families held funerals, assuming their loved ones had been killed.

The Trump administration claimed the strikes were part of a war against “narcoterrorists” believed to be transporting drugs. The lawsuit points out that White House chief of staff Suzie Wiles said in a December interview that Trump planned to “keep blowing up boats” until Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro resigns. There has been a boat strike since the United States kidnapped Maduro and his wife.

“Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were not members of or affiliated with any drug cartels,” the lawsuit states. “The Trinidadian government has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities’ and that it has ‘no information that victims of the US strikes were in possession of illegal drugs, firearms or small arms.’

The men’s families say the strikes constitute “wrongful deaths and extrajudicial killings” under the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute. They point to the loss of income that both men contributed and, in Joseph’s case, the loss to his three young children of “the education, instruction, guidance, physical, intellectual and moral training that they would have received from Mr. Joseph had he lived.”

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which the plaintiffs wrote they chose “in light of this district’s venerable history of resolving admiralty disputes.” It was assigned to a magistrate judge, chosen by the district’s federal judges, rather than by presidential appointment. The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights support the plaintiffs.

-Kate Riga

Stephen Miller behind the “Massacre” line

Because of course he was.

White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser Stephen Miller dictated the language DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her department used to tell the narrative after ICE killed another U.S. citizen over the weekend, according to a new report from Axios:

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done under the leadership of the president and Stephen,” Noem told a person who relayed her comments to Axios.

In the hours after the killing, Miller and DHS officials began drafting a statement based on information provided by agents on the ground, but not those directly involved in the shooting. Officers reportedly mentioned that the victim had a gun and that Miller fled with it. By Axios:

“Stephen heard ‘gun’ and knew what the story would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ the cops,” said a source briefed on the press release writing process.

—Nicole LaFond

A stagnant job economy may finally be heading downhill

Two new data sets released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics paint a grim picture of how the nation’s economy is faring under President Trump’s policies and could put the already beleaguered Federal Reserve in a new delicate situation.

The November BLS State Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or State JOLTS survey — which measures labor indicators including state-level job losses and departures, hires and job offers — found, in short, that fewer people are being hired, more people are losing or leaving their jobs, and there are fewer job openings for those looking. November saw the lowest number of job postings since September 2024. Year over year, the number and rate of job postings are down nationally.

The BLS also released its state-level unemployment report in December, which found that although the national unemployment rate decreased slightly from 4.5% in November to 4.4% in December, unemployment rates increased in six states. Among states with statistically significant changes in unemployment rates, more saw their unemployment rates increase rather than decrease year over year, according to the report.

The decreases are very modest, but they do not occur occasionally. Instead, they continue the expected downward trend in a job market that has been stagnant for months.

And those numbers pose an additional challenge for Fed governors, who are meeting this week to decide whether to cut interest rates and must consider which is more important: fighting above-target inflation by holding rates, or protecting jobs by cutting them.

“They are in an extraordinarily difficult situation,” Seth Carpenter, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, told Bloomberg Surveillance on Monday. “If you look at the overall spending numbers, those turn out to be pretty strong. Then you look at the employment numbers and the nonfarm payroll numbers are really, really weak. And that combination is pretty ahistorical.”

-Layla A. Jones

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Watch our live coverage here: Democrats demand Noem’s firing and congressional accountability for ICE

TPM Coffee: The assassination of Alex Pretti has shaken up the right’s discourse on government excesses

Morning memo: Bovino is out as Trump recasts Goon lead role

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