Trump to use 'Alien Enemies Act' to supercharge deportations, target gang

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 5:16 p.m. ET Mar. 13, 2025


DENVER ‒ President Donald Trump is preparing to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations as he makes good on his promise to target violent criminal offenders living illegally in the United States. Trump has repeatedly referenced using the law passed 277 years ago, and which was previously been used to detain U.S. citizens of Japanese and German descent during World War II, in a chapter that has since been seen as deeply problematic.

The law gives the president wartime power to deport people without hearings, if deemed necessary. Trump has specifically singled out Denver and neighboring suburb Aurora as targets of the enhanced enforcement due to the presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Aurora city officials have downplayed Trump's concerns but have acknowledged the arrest of at least eight known or suspected TdA members in the past year.

"As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said during his Jan. 20 inaugural address. He went on to say, "by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities."

Trump on Friday is planning to address the Department of Justice, and has singled out Tren de Aragua as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States. ICE agents have been highlighting recent TdA detentions they've made across the country.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/13/trump-alien-enemies-act-1798-deportations/82371403007/

---

"Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class".

[NotHardly]

1. Shut this f*cker down before Russia takes us all.

[slightlv]

2. Maybe trump finally realizes the United States...

ALL of us... are at war with HIM. He can't use these, can he? we're not actually in a declared war. At least, that's what we were being told when we wanted to bring him on treason charges.

Can I pick a country and have trump deport me to it? I really would like to get the hell out of the "shithole" country he's made us.

[moniss]

3. They so desperately want to ramp things up

and begin the killing.

[JanMichael]

4. This is so 1910 or 1912. Wow. Wobblies?

[douglas9]

5. The Alien Enemies Act Paved the Way for Japanese American Incarceration. Let's Keep It in the Past. - Densho: Japanese A

October 17, 2024

At a rally in Aurora, Colorado last week, former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump made a disturbing promise to round up and deport millions of immigrants if elected. While this anti-immigrant rhetoric is not new for the Trump campaign, what grabbed headlines this time around was his invocation of an 18th century law that grants the president sweeping power to detain and deport foreign nationals. That law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, was the same legislation that provided the legal basis for the internment and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

So what is the Alien Enemies Act, and is it as dangerous as it sounds?

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of four laws passed on the eve of war with France. This charge was led by a Federalist-controlled Congress that viewed political dissent as disloyalty and feared non-citizen “aliens” would rise up to support their countries of origin in overthrowing the United States. (Sound familiar? Turns out nationalism and xenophobia are an American tradition!)

These laws — which were widely denounced for restricting freedom of speech and later contributed to the Federalists’ defeat in the election of 1800 — placed regulations on the press, raised the residency requirements for citizenship, and made aliens “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed” in the event of war with their nation of origin. As of 2024, it remains on the books, in modified form, and authorizes the President to detain and deport enemy aliens in time of war.

During World War II, immediately after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt invoked the Alien Enemies Act to authorize the government to detain enemy aliens and confiscate enemy property. Within hours of the attack, federal and local law enforcement began arresting Japanese immigrants as “enemy aliens” and suspected saboteurs — before an actual declaration of war, and largely without warrants or formal charges

https://densho.org/catalyst/the-alien-enemies-act-paved-the-way-for-japanese-american-incarceration-lets-keep-it-in-the-past/

[BumRushDaShow]

6. All I could think about was George Takei

[Polybius]

7. Why wasn't this ever repealed?

We had plenty of supermajorities over the last 226 years.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. "Why wasn't this ever repealed?"

Probably because it was something that would generally only go into effect IF THERE WAS A WAR -

The One Alien and Sedition Act Still on the Books

(snip)

The Alien Enemies Act – July 6, 1798

In addition to its grant of powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause, Congress has the exclusive ability to declare a state of war under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

The Alien Enemies Act goes into effect “whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government.”

The twisted apparent threatened use is to claim that these drug gangs (or just any undocumented people or anyone they don't like) ARE somehow "a nation or government".

Sen. Mazie Hirono and Rep. Ilhan Omar reintroduced a bill to repeal that -

Rep. Ilhan Omar Reintroduces the Neighbors Not Enemies Act to Repeal Alien Enemies Act

S.193 - Neighbors Not Enemies Act