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https://www.justsecurity.org/109133/alien-enemies-act-venezuelan-gang/ke-alien-enemies-act/
The Alien Enemies Act was last used during WW2 to allow for Japanese internment camps. Now Trump is trying to invoke it to deport people without due process.
In his last term he had to be repeatedly talked down from invading Venezuela. Now the courts are telling him he can't invoke The Alien Enemies Act if we're not at war. So how is Trump going to get around that?
One Venezuelan man in ICE custody was transferred by immigration authorities to the El Valle Detention Facility in Texas for deportation, even though he did not have a removal order against him. He told government agents that he was not subject to a removal order and had been in the process of requesting bond, according to his legal counsel. An ICE agent responded that he was being deported on order of the president, according to the lawyers. The ICE agent also told the Venezuelan man that even if he did not sign a voluntary departure order, ICE officials would sign it for him and that the order from the president is “to deport them all,” according to a court filing.
The Alien Enemies Act has been invoked three times, each time during a major conflict: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. In World Wars I and II, the law was a key authority behind detentions, expulsions, and restrictions targeting German, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, and Italian immigrants based solely on their ancestry. The law is best known for its role in Japanese internment, a shameful part of U.S. history for which Congress, presidents, and the courts have apologized.
The Alien Enemies Act was last used during WW2 to allow for Japanese internment camps. Now Trump is trying to invoke it to deport people without due process.
In his last term he had to be repeatedly talked down from invading Venezuela. Now the courts are telling him he can't invoke The Alien Enemies Act if we're not at war. So how is Trump going to get around that?
The previous day Trump reportedly took his top officials by surprise in an Oval Office meeting, asking why the US could not intervene to remove the government of Nicolás Maduro on the grounds that Venezuela’s political and economic unraveling represented a threat to the region.
Quoting an unnamed senior administration official, the AP report said the suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, which included the then national security adviser, HR McMaster, and secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Both have since left the administration.
The administration officials are said to have taken turns in trying to talk him out of the idea, pointing out that any such military action would alienate Latin American allies who had supported the US policy of punitive sanctions on the Maduro regime.
Quoting an unnamed senior administration official, the AP report said the suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, which included the then national security adviser, HR McMaster, and secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Both have since left the administration.
The administration officials are said to have taken turns in trying to talk him out of the idea, pointing out that any such military action would alienate Latin American allies who had supported the US policy of punitive sanctions on the Maduro regime.
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