On Saturday, President Donald Trump activated the AlienEnemiesAct for the first time since World War II, empowering him to expel individuals linked to a Venezuelan gang using provisions from an old statute. However, within hours, a federal court issued an injunction against deporting people based on Trump’s directive.
This legislation grants broad wartime powers permitting the removal of non-citizens from the country without allowing them access to an immigration or federal court judge for review.
Throughout his campaign, Trump frequently suggested that he might invoke exceptional authorities to tackle unlawful immigration. He further set the stage for this with several executive orders issued on January 20th.
On Saturday, his statement labeled Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang as an invasive entity. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, nominated by President Barack Obama, halted all deportations under the president's directive for 14 days and set up a review on Friday to discuss further arguments; however, some deportations proceeded anyway.
What does the AlienEnemiesAct entail?
In 1798, as the United States geared up for a conflict they anticipated might arise with France, Congress enacted several statutes designed to expand the authority of the federal government. Concerned about potential allegiance immigrant communities may hold towards France, the Alien Enemies Act came into being, granting extensive power to the President to detain and expel non-citizen residents during wartime conditions.
Since then, the Act has only been invoked thrice: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
In World War II, amid widespread xenophobia across the nation, this sentiment provided a legal basis for incarcerating large groups of individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds, particularly those of German, Italian, and notably Japanese descent. Approximately 120,000 Americans of Japanese origin—citizens included—were detained throughout the conflict.
What caused this to reach a critical point on a Saturday?
The American Civil Liberties Union along with Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit against Trump just before the weekend in a federal court located in Washington, D.C. They claimed that five Venezuelan nationals detained at an immigration facility in Raymondville, Texas, faced "an imminent threat" of expulsion under the Alien Enemies Act. Following this, Judge Boasberg halted their deportation, which then led to an instant challenge from the Justice Department.
At nearly the same time, the Trump administration consented to provide El Salvador with $6 million to detain roughly 300 suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang for a period of one year.
The accord with El Salvador came after talks between the nation’s leader, President Nayib Bukele, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding the placement of migrants within El Salvador’s infamous penitentiaries. Since 2022, under Bukele’s administration, over 84,000 individuals have been detained at times without proper legal procedures as part of an effort to combat gang-related criminal activities.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer, stated that two flights on Saturday might have transported individuals who were deported as per President Trump's directive, with one flight potentially heading to El Salvador and another possibly destined for Honduras. Judge Boasberg mentioned that should these indeed be deportation flights, they must be intercepted mid-air and redirected back to the U.S.
Is the country not at war?
For years, Trump and his supporters have maintained that the U.S. is experiencing an "influx" of individuals entering the country unlawfully. Border arrests involving Mexico surged above 2 million annually for two consecutive years during President Joe Biden’s tenure, with numerous detainees being allowed entry into the U.S. to seek asylum. Following a record-high month of 250,000 apprehensions in December 2023, numbers plummeted to fewer than 8,400 last February—the fewest since the 1960s.
The act, according to Trump during his inaugural speech, will be an essential instrument in his efforts to crack down on immigration.
Through the invocation of the AlienEnemiesAct of 1798, I will instruct our administration to leverage the comprehensive authority of both federal and state law enforcement agencies to eradicate all foreign gangs and criminal organizations responsible for introducing severe crime onto American territory," he stated. "Serving as Commander-in-Chief, my paramount duty is to safeguard our nation against external threats and incursions.
Critics argue that Trump is misapplying the act to go after non-state actors instead of focusing on foreign governments.
The Brennan Center for Justice stated that "using it during peacetime to circumvent standard immigration laws would constitute an unprecedented misuse." They also noted this approach being "inconsistent with over two hundred years of legislative, presidential, and judicial precedent."
The Brennan Center stated, “Detaining and deporting individuals under current laws clash with modern interpretations of equal protection and due process.”
Is illegal immigration considered an invasion?
This is an unprecedented and untried assertion. Trump has cautioned about the influence of Latin American criminal organizations within the U.S., yet merely a small fraction of those residing in the country unlawfully are involved in crime.
On Saturday, Trump issued a war-time announcement stating that Tren de Aragua is carrying out, planning, and threatening a predatory invasion within U.S. territory. According to him, this group is conducting "unconventional warfare" against the United States under the guidance of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
The Tren de Aragua emerged from one of the notoriously lawless prisons in the central state of Aragua. It coincided with an exodus involving millions of Venezuelans, most of whom sought improved living standards as the country's economy collapsed over the past ten years.
Last month, the Trump administration labeled Tren de Aragua and seven additional Latin American criminal groups as "foreign terrorist organizations," intensifying the pressure on drug cartels active within the U.S. and those supporting them.
The congressional research body stated in a recent document that authorities might utilize foreign terrorist labels to contend that the gang's operations within the U.S. equate to a minor invasion. "This assertion seems to break new ground and hasn’t undergone legal scrutiny," the Congressional Research Service noted.
Typically, the Venezuelan government hasn’t repatriated citizens from the U.S., with exceptions occurring occasionally. In recent weeks, around 350 individuals have been sent back to Venezuela, among them roughly 180 who had stayed for as long as 16 days at the U.S. Navy’s facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.