Trump over the weekend invoked a sparsely used 18th century law to carry out mass deportations—and after outrage, justified doing so because we are in a “time of war.”
On Saturday, the president used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—untouched since the War of 1812 and the Japanese internment of the 1940s—to push the deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans, claiming they were Tren de Aragua gang members. The deportations were carried out despite a court order requiring all planes carrying people deported under the law to remain in the country.
When asked the following day why he invoked wartime powers, Trump’s answer was telling.
“Well this is a time of war. Because Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level.… Other nations emptied their jails into the United States, it’s an invasion. These are criminals, many many criminals … murderers, drug dealers at the highest level, drug lords. People from mental institutions. That’s an invasion,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, sliding effortlessly into the unfounded, racist rhetoric that has defined his political career.
“In that sense this is war. In many respects it’s more dangerous than war because you know in war they have uniforms, you know who you’re shooting at, you know who you’re going after,” he continued. “We have thousands of murderers that Biden in his incompetence—he was grossly incompetent—Biden and his people.… It looked like we had an autopen for a president,” he said, insinuating that Biden was using an automatic signing device for all those last minute pardons he did rather than under his own power.
Trump’s invocation is a doubling down upon his mass deportation mission, and setting up a crisis by openly defying the courts. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a fellow authoritarian ruler and Trump ally, mocked the judge’s order, posting video after video of heavily armed police officers leading the returned migrants to prison.
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