Trump Invokes Alien Enemies Act as Tool for Deportation – Federal Court Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against it
Today, President Donald Trump issued an executive proclamation invoking the use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport members of Tren de Aragua Venezuelan drug gang. A few hours earlier, a federal court issued a temporary restraining order blocking the executive from using the Act to deport five Venezuelans who were apparently about to be deported on that basis.
The Alien Enemies Act was one of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the only one that is still in force. If courts let the Administration use it, they could potentially detain and deport even legal immigrants with little or no due process. But the Act can only be used in the event of a declared war, or an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” perpetrated by a “foreign nation or government.” As explained in detail in my earlier writings about this issue, illegal migration and cross-border drug smuggling do not qualify as an “invasion” or “predatory incursion.” Even if they did, they aren’t being perpetrated by a “foreign nation or government.” Tren de Aragua is an awful criminal organization. But it is not “invading” the United States, and it is not a “foreign nation or government.”
Even if the administration is right to claim that Tren de Aragua has some connections to Venezuelan government officials, that does not mean the gang is itself a nation-state. Lots of organized crime groups bribe or otherwise suborn government officials to facilitate their black market activities. That doesn’t turn these drug cartels into governments, nor does it convert their criminal activities into an “invasion.”
In my last post about this issue, I explain
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