WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it's still searching for people in the eastern Pacific Ocean who had jumped off alleged drug-smuggling boats when the U.S. military attacked the vessels days earlier, diminishing the likelihood that anyone survived.
Search efforts began Tuesday afternoon after the military notified the Coast Guard that survivors were in the water about 400 miles (650 kilometers) southwest of the border between Mexico and Guatemala, the maritime service said in a statement.
The Coast Guard dispatched a plane from Sacramento to search an area covering more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), while issuing an urgent warning to ships nearby. The agency said it coordinated more than 65 hours of search efforts, working with other countries as well as civilian ships and boats in the area.
The weather during that time has included 9-foot seas and 40-knot winds. The U.S. has not said how many people jumped into the water, and, if they are not found, how far the death toll may rise from the Trump administration's monthslong campaign of blowing up small boats accused of transporting drugs in the region.
The U.S. military said earlier this week that it attacked three boats traveling along known narco-trafficking routes and they “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes.” The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.
U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the region, said three people were killed when the first boat was struck, while people in the other two boats jumped overboard and distanced themselves from the vessels before they were attacked.
The strikes occurred in a part of the eastern Pacific where the Navy doesn’t have any ships operating. Southern Command said it immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue efforts for the people who jumped overboard before the other boats were hit.
Calling in the Coast Guard is notable because the military drew heavy scrutiny after U.S. forces killed the survivors of the first attack in early September with a follow-up strike to their disabled boat. Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers say the follow-up strike was legal.
There have been other survivors of the boat strikes, including one for whom the Mexican Navy suspended a search in late October after four days. Two other survivors of a strike on a submersible vessel in the Caribbean Sea that same month were sent to their home countries — Ecuador and Colombia. Authorities in Ecuador later released the man, saying they had no evidence he committed a crime in the South American nation.
Under President Donald Trump's direction, the U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Along with the strikes, the Trump administration has built up military forces in the region as part of an escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States.
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Minnesota officials have until next week to provide the Trump administration with information about providers and parents who receive federal child care funds or risk losing potentially millions of dollars in federal funding, state officials said Friday.
In an email sent Friday to child care providers shared with The Associated Press by multiple providers, Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families said it has until Jan. 9 to provide a set of verifying information about recipients. The announcement earlier this week by the Trump administration that it would freeze child care funds to Minnesota and the rest of the states comes after a series of fraud schemes at Minnesota day care centers, many run by Somali residents. The move came after a right-wing influencer alleged there were widespread abuses.
The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, federal officials have said.
The email instructed providers and families who rely on the frozen federal child care program to continue the program’s “licensing and certification requirements and practices as usual.” It does not say that recipients themselves need to take any action or provide any information.
“We recognize the alarm and questions this has raised,” the email said. “We found out about the freezing of funds at the same time everyone else did on social media.”
The state agency added that it “did not receive a formal communication from the federal government until late Tuesday night,” which was after Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill posted about the freeze on X. All 50 states will have to provide additional levels of verification and administrative data before they receive more funding from the Child Care and Development Fund, which is designed to make child care affordable for low-income families.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss the allegations of fraudulent use of federal funds in Minnesota. An HHS spokesperson said that the child care fraud hotline put up by the federal agency earlier this week has received more than 200 tips.
Minnesota has drawn ire from Republicans and the Trump administration over other fraud accusations.
Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams told Fox News on Friday that his agency sent Minnesota a letter last month asking for information on the child care program and other welfare programs by Dec. 26, but didn't get a response. The state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler posted Thursday on X that the agency suspended 6,900 Minnesota borrowers of COVID-19 era loans because of suspected fraud. Trump has also targeted the state's large Somali community with immigration enforcement actions and called them “garbage.”
Minnesota Democrats say the Trump administration is playing politics and hurting families and children as a result. Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth and Families said in a press release Friday that inspectors conduct regular oversight activities for the child care program, noting that there are 55 related open investigations involving providers.
It also said that investigators did spot checks and reviews on nine centers and found they “were operating as expected." One center was not yet open at the time.
“DCYF remains committed to fact-based reviews that stop fraud, protect children, support families, and minimize disruption to communities that rely on these essential services," the department said. "Distribution of unvetted or deceptive claims and misuse of tip lines can interfere with investigations, create safety risks for families, providers, and employers, and has contributed to harmful discourse about Minnesota’s immigrant communities.”
Maria Snider, director of a child care center in St. Paul and vice president of advocacy group Minnesota Child Care Association, said providers currently get paid at least three weeks after services are provided. Some 23,000 children and 12,000 families receive funding from the targeted child care program each month on average, according to the state.
“For a lot of centers, we’re already running on a thin margin,” she said. “Even centers where 10 to 15% of their kids are on childcare assistance, that’s a dip in your income.”
Any child who attends a child care center with attendees who receive federal funding could be impacted, Snider said.
According to the Friday email from Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, HHS sent a letter to Minnesota asking for data from 2022 to 2025, including identifying information of all recipients of the child care funds, a list of all providers who receive the funds, how much they receive and “information related to alleged fraud networks and oversight failures.” It’s unclear whether Minnesota already has the data the administration is asking for.
HHS said five child care centers that receive funds from the child care program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would have to provide “specific documentation” such as attendance, inspections and assessments, according to the email.
HHS said it would provide Minnesota with more information by Jan. 5, but the state agency wrote that it’s unclear what kinds of funding restrictions it faces.
“Our teams are working hard to analyze the legal, fiscal, and other aspects of this federal action,” the email says. “We do not know the full impact.”
Children watch television at ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, June 12, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - State Sen. Michelle Benson reacts at a news conference on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul to a report by the state's legislative auditor on combatting fraud in Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski,File)
People gather for a news conference at the state capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Giovanna Dell'Orto)
