The expansion of the drug war and with it the Coast Guard's authority to detain suspected smugglers has raised concerns about legal procedure and due process.
Coast Guard crews coordinate with countries in the region to resolve jurisdictional issues regarding suspected smuggling vessels and people aboard them, but the service has faced criticism for holding detainees in international waters for weeks or months — a former Coast Guard lawyer described the cutters holding detainees as "floating Guantanamos."
In a December 2017 interview, then-Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft defended the service, calling that description "an unfair stab at the Coast Guard."
"We will provide them food, provide them shelter, provide them sanitation facilities. This is really a challenge of logistics," Zukunft said. "We're spending, right now, about 30% of our at-sea patrol time doing logistics for detainees to facilitate their arrival in the United States for further prosecution, so it really is a logistics effort."