As Trump ramps up tensions with Venezuela, U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation to bring back a scourge of the high seas banished from Atlantic and Pacific waters since the age of sail: privateers, authorized by government-issued letters of marque to ply the trade of piracy in service of their country by targeting enemy ships.
These modern day privateers, under a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), would receive authorization from U.S. President Donald Trump as private individuals to seize foreign vessels from anyone who “is a member of a cartel, a member of a cartel-linked organization, or a conspirator associated with a cartel or a cartel-linked organization.”
“Cartels have replaced corsairs in the modern era, but we can still give private American citizens and their businesses a stake in the fight against these murderous foreign criminals,” Lee, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement announcing the bill. “The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act will revive this historic practice to defend our shores and seize cartel assets.”
Corsairs, who Lee references in his statement, were themselves French privateers, although the term was also used in reference to Barbary privateers and raiders and various prates through the ages.
Since September, U.S. forces have launched strikes on at least 26 suspected drug smuggling boats, killing at least 99 people in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. To justify the strikes, Trump has said the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
The U.S. has amassed a vast array of warships, surveillance craft and aircraft in the Caribbean, including the USS Gerald Ford — the Pentagon’s largest aircraft carrier. Thousands of soldiers, including elite Special Forces units, have also been deployed to the region.
Under Lee’s “Cartel Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025,” ordinary American citizens could join them in plying the seas for vessels to intercept.
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to “declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” Letters of marque and reprisal authorize private citizens, or privateers, to attack and capture foreign vessels. During the 18th century, the U.S. authorized privateers to fight in the American Revolutionary War against the British, whose Royal Navy was unrivaled at the time. Roughly 1,700 letters were issued during the war and nearly 600 British ships were captured or destroyed. The last time the U.S. commissioned private citizens was during the War of 1812.
Over the years, congressional lawmakers have proposed legislation that would authorize privateers to seize the property of Osama bin Laden and any other individual responsible for Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; target Somali pirates and capture yachts owned by Russian oligarchs.
Thursday’s bill, which is pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, authorizes Trump to commission privateers to seize cartel property and people located “outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories” on land or sea.
Authorizing privateers would be a creative approach that “gives the president some constitutional power to go after bad people and not wait on Congress to give their permission,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) told The Washington Post.
“It’s just another tool in the box,” he said. “I think Trump’s the right one to activate it.”
Burchett introduced a version of the bill in the House in February. It is before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Before boat owners of Florida eager for a high-risk side hustle take to the seas, they should take heed: The bill would need to come to a vote, pass and be signed into law before any letter of marque could be issued.
“You’re not gonna get a bunch of guys down at the local beer joint” to “sign up,” Burchett said. “There’s certain legal criteria that will have to be met.”
He said he envisioned “operators” and “first tier people” taking on the job as a second career. “They’re just a little older now.”
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the bill. The Pentagon said it does not comment on pending legislation.
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