Revival of Alien Enemies Act by Trump Halted by Federal Judge
Former President Donald Trump brought into play the Alien Enemies Act, a law untouched since the era of World War II, empowering him to expel individuals linked to a Venezuelan gang. This marked application was seen for the first time on a Saturday. However, within hours, a federal judge interposed this movement, prohibiting the deportations under Trump’s implementation of the act. The Alien Enemies Act, a robust legislation of wartime, enables the removal of non-citizens without granting them a court hearing.
Throughout his campaign, Trump hinted at multiple instances that he might resort to extreme measures to deal with illegal immigration issues. The ground for such actions had been already laid as a part of several executive orders issued on January 20. Trump’s declaration on that particular Saturday labeled Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang as an intruding entity.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg intervened with this action, preventing any deportations under Trump’s command for two weeks. He also arranged a hearing the subsequent Friday, dedicated to reviewing the contentions. This enactment drew its genesis in 1798 when the U.S. felt a storm of war brewing with France and thus, expanded the extent of the federal government’s control.
Expressing fears that the immigrants might align with the French, the government formulated the Alien Enemies Act. The intention was to bestow the President with expansive capabilities to incarcerate and deport non-residents during a war situation. This piece of legislation has only been put to use thrice since its conception: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
The prospect of invoking the Alien Enemies Act led to the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward filing a pre-emptive lawsuit against Trump on a late Friday. The lawsuit filed in federal court claimed that five Venezuelan men, then held at an immigration-consolidation center, were at an ‘imminent risk of removal’ under the said act.
The judge’s intervention blocked their deportation. The Justice Department was quick to respond, filing an appeal promptly. This occurrence succeeded a dialogue between El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding the detainment of immigrants in the infamous prisons of El Salvador.
Under Bukele’s authority, his government had detained over 84,000 individuals, on some instances even without proper legal proceedings, as part of a rigorous crackdown on gang-related violence since 2022. When presented with this scenario, the obliging judge pronounced that any such deportations would need to revert mid-flight, sending them back to U.S. soil.
In the backdrop of this development, statistics on the arrest rates on the U.S.-Mexico border area showed them surpassing 2 million annually for two consecutive years under the administration of President Joe Biden. Many of these boarded detainees were released into the U.S. for further pursuit of asylum.
The origins of Tren de Aragua are rooted in an infamous prison, situated in the central state of Aragua, notorious for its lawlessness. Coincidentally, this timeframe also witnessed an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, most of whom were propelled in search of improved living conditions following the collapse of their homeland’s economy in the preceding decade.
Recently, the number of deportees to Venezuela amounted to approximately 350 people within a span of a few weeks. This marked a new wave of expatriations pursued with the purpose of national security, backed by age-old enforcement tools like the Alien Enemies Act.