DJT Invokes 1798 Law to Deport Venezuelan Immigrants

Donald Trump signed an executive order to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a law from 1798, to justify deporting immigrants from Venezuela.

The executive order was not made public until after it leaked the next day.

The Alien Enemies Act is one of a package of four laws commonly known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. This particular law applies only during war or under threat of an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” by a foreign power. It has been invoked three times, always in wartime. Its most recent use was against people of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry during World War II. In that instance the USA infamously kept Japanese-Americans in prison camps during World War II and stripped them of everything they owned, for which the USA eventually apologized.

The executive order begins by declaring a Venezuelan gang as conducting a predatory incursion:

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking. TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.

The paperwork the government generates when it detains a Venezuelan immigrant under the Alien Enemies Act includes this Notice to Alien Enemy:

I am a law enforcement officer authorized to apprehend, restrain, and remove Alien Enemies. You have been determined to be at least fourteen years of age; not a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States; a citizen of Venezuela; and a member of Tren de Aragua. Accordingly, you have been determined to be an Alien Enemy subject to apprehension, restraint, and removal from the United States. You are not entitled to a hearing, appeal, or judicial review of this notice and warrant of apprehension and removal. Until you are removed from the United States, you will remain detained under Title 40, Unite [sic] States Code, Section 21. Any statements you make now or while you are in custody may be used against you in any administrative or criminal proceeding. This is not a removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

After being removed from the United States, you must request and obtain permission from the Secretary of Homeland Security to enter or attempt to enter the United States at any time. Should you enter or attempt to enter the United States without receiving such permission, you will be subject to immediate removal and may be subject to criminal prosecution and imprisonment.

Title 40, United States Code Section 21 pertains to public buildings, property and works. It has nothing to do with immigration or the Alien Enemies Act.

Click here to read the White House announcement.

Click here for background by Heather Cox Richardson.