Fil-Am congressman, Democrats assail US action in Venezuela

LOS ANGELES – Filipino American Congressman Bobby Scott has joined other Democrats in expressing outrage over the US military action in Venezuela, taking aim at President Donald Trump for not informing Congress before launching the strikes and capturing President Nicolás Maduro.

Scott said escalating military action in a sovereign country without congressional authorization raises serious questions under both US and international law and risks further destabilizing the region.

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Protesters rally outside the White House Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Washington, after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a military operation. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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Unconstitutional

“There is no question that Nicolás Maduro is a brutal and corrupt leader who has inflicted enormous harm on the Venezuelan people,” Scott said in a statement. “However, the reprehensible conduct of a foreign leader, absent a clear and immediate threat to the United States, does not give any president the authority to disregard the Constitution,”

The Constitution grants Congress the sole power to formally declare war. In 1973, an attempt to further codify its control of military excursions amid the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution. That act says the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing armed forces into hostilities, and troops must be removed within 60-90 days if Congress doesn’t authorize the action.

Since then, presidents have occasionally skirted the act, citing various exigencies, and its effectiveness continues to be debated.

“To date, the Trump Administration has yet to identify a clear legal basis for its military strikes in the Caribbean, the Eastern Pacific or now inside Venezuela, for the capture of a foreign head of state, or even to ‘run’ a foreign country,” Scott said.

‘Dubious military actions’

Scott said he has repeatedly warned that “heavy-handed and legally dubious military actions carried out in the name of reducing drug use in the United States” are among the least effective and most costly ways to address the drug problem.

The Fil-Am legislator said he will continue to press for answers and for Congress to reassert its constitutional war powers.

“Congress and the American people deserve a full accounting of the legal authority, objectives, and consequences of these actions,” he said.

Democrats express outrage

Democrats from Los Angeles County’s congressional delegation echoed Scott’s views.

“The president has lost his mind. There was no approval from Congress, let alone any notification,” said Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Covina). “(Nicolás) Maduro is an illegitimate leader, but what was the justification for kidnapping him and his wife?

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia and member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, also slammed Trump’s action Saturday.

“The self-proclaimed president of peace has once again resorted to war. After months of conducting extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, this rogue president has just escalated his illegal campaign by carrying out military strikes in Venezuela without any declaration of war or authorization of military force from Congress,” she said.

‘What the hell is going on?’

“What the hell is going on?” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) posted Saturday morning on X. “It was just a few weeks ago when Trump pardoned one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world, Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who had been convicted by the Biden administration and was serving a sentence of 45 years in prison. What is this? Is this about regime change? Is this about oil?’

Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-San Pedro) called Maduro “a bully” who has “long stood against American principles,” but added “that does not give the president of the United States the right to storm into another country, without Congressional approval, and risk the lives of millions of Americans for his own greed and ambition.”

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) wrote on X: “Congress must rein in this administration and stop it from dragging our country into another endless, unauthorized war.”

“This military action is illegal without congressional authorization,” wrote Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles). “That is why I supported War Powers resolutions last month to prevent exactly this kind of unchecked use of force, resolutions that House Republicans blocked.”

‘Dangerous precedent’

Rep. George Whitesides (D-Santa Clarita) also took the president to task for not informing Congress.

“This sets a dangerous precedent,” he said. “If the United States asserts the right to unilaterally remove a foreign head of state on a domestic charge, we erode our moral standing to stop adversaries like Vladimir Putin from doing the same to leaders like Ukrainian president Zelensky, or China from detaining the president of Taiwan.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Whittier) said serious questions remain unanswered: “How many American troops have been deployed to Venezuela and how long will they be there? What actions is the US taking to prevent chaos and violence in the region?”

California’s two Democratic senators also weighed in.

‘Recipe for chaos’

“There’s no clear objective, no endgame, and no plan for what comes next. This is a dangerous recipe for chaos in the region,” Sen. Alex Padilla wrote.

Sen. Adam Schiff said starting a war to remove Maduro “doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation.”

But Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) expressed support for the decision.

“The Venezuelan people have suffered under his illegitimate rule for long enough,” Kim said. “I’m glad he will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and look forward to hearing more from the administration in the coming days and hours.”

After months of escalating tensions in which the US conducted deadly strikes against alleged drug boats from Venezuela, seized an oil tanker and ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers, the US military launched the large-scale operation in Caracas overnight Friday and early Saturday.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is under federal indictment in the United States for allegedly running a cartel that has funneled drugs into the US, and his wife were taken from their home and transported to New York to face charges.

US to take over oil fields

At a news conference Saturday, Trump said the United States would “be running” Venezuela indefinitely until a “judicious” transfer of power could take place. He added that the United States would be taking over the country’s oil fields, increasing production and allowing US oil companies to sell the oil to other nations, including China and Russia.

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Trump accused Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores of a “campaign of deadly narco-terrorism against the United States and its citizens.”

The president said previous US strikes on drug boats had knocked out 97% of drugs coming into the United States by sea, “and those drugs mostly come from a place called Venezuela.”

He added that each alleged drug boat was responsible for “on average 25,000 deaths.”

Venezuela contains the world’s largest proven oil reserves and used to be among its largest oil producers, but its production has fallen off drastically in the last couple decades.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Saturday that the nature of the military operation, which officials planned for days but waited to launch until weather conditions were ideal, did not allow for congressional notification.

Trump added that Congress was known to leak information, and that could have jeopardized the mission. (With CNS report)

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