1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose the unauthorized military strikes President Trump ordered in Nigeria on Christmas Day and to demand congressional oversight of any future military action in West Africa. On December 25th, the administration launched more than a dozen Tomahawk missiles from the Gulf of Guinea targeting locations in Nigeria's Sokoto state. This military action raises serious constitutional and strategic concerns that require immediate congressional attention. The President has not presented evidence of imminent threat to American lives or interests that would justify unilateral military action without congressional authorization. The administration's justification for these strikes does not withstand scrutiny. President Trump claimed the operation protected Christians being "viciously killed" and deliberately scheduled it for Christmas as a "Christmas present." However, former Ambassador J. Peter Pham, who served as U.S. special envoy for the Sahel region during Trump's first term, expressed puzzlement about targeting Sokoto state specifically, noting that violence against Christians occurs more commonly in Nigeria's northeast and central regions, not the northwest where strikes occurred. Nigeria's conflicts are far more complex than religious targeting. The Nigerian Foreign Minister stated that most violence victims are actually Muslim. ACLED conflict monitoring reports that while Christian fatalities rose last year, the vast majority of incidents involved land disputes between nomadic herders and farmers over scarce resources rather than religious persecution. Boko Haram and other terrorist groups have attacked both mosques and churches for years. Ambassador Pham also raised concerns about operational security, questioning coordination with parts of the Nigerian government that are "suspect" in enabling or tolerating extremism. Military strikes cannot address the root causes of governance failures, insufficient political will, and complex political alliances that drive Nigeria's violence. I urge you to demand full briefings on the legal authorization for these strikes, hold hearings on military operations in West Africa, and ensure no further unauthorized military action occurs without congressional approval.