President Trump to Invoke Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to Increase Deportations and Target International Gangs
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 will be re-invoked by President Donald Trump in an effort to increase mass deportations and eliminate the presence of criminal gangs in the US. President Donald Trump is expected to soon re-enact this law according to ABC News.
This move was planned by Trump during his campaign for the Presidency in the fall of 2024. At a campaign rally he told his audience:
“I’m announcing today that upon taking office, we will have an Operation Aurora at the federal level to expedite the removals of these savage gangs, and I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Think of that, 1798.”
Among the savage gangs the President is targeting is Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated a foreign terrorist organization on February 20.
Some arrested under the act will be sent to prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The Alien Enemies Act was first put into effect by President John Adams in 1798. The Act’s purpose was to make US residents 14 years and older who are from a “hostile nation or government… liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies” during times of war. These could be “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects” to said governments.
Thomas Jefferson – Vice President of the US in 1798 – was an opponent of the Alien Enemies Act. Jefferson wrote a resolution against it and other similar acts claiming they were “palpable violations” of the Constitution. His focus was on the federal government using powers not delegated to it by the states, rather than on the nature of the act itself.
The Act has been reinstated several times throughout US history. Importantly, the context in which Trump will use it is considerably different from that of 1798, or even during World Wars II when it was most recently invoked.
