BBC News
Presence / Handout Via Reuters SecretaryMore than 200 Venezuelans, Who The White House Alleges Are Gang Members, Have The Gen Deported From The US to the Notorious Mega-Jail in El Salvador.
Out of The 261 People Deported, 137 Were Removed Under The Alien Enemies Act, A Senior Administration Official Told CBS News, The BBC’s US Partner.
This Broad, Centuries-Old Law Was was invoked by President Donald Trump. He Accused Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) of “Perpetrating, Attempting, And Threatression on Invasion or Predatory Incursion” on US Territory.
A Lower Court Temporarily Blocked These Deportations on March 15, Ruling That The Administration’s Actions Under the Law Needed Feather Scrutiny. But in a 5-4 decision on 7 April, The Supreme Court Lifted That Block, Siding With Trump While Mandating Procedural Safeguards.
What is the Act?
The Alien Enemies Act Grants The United States Sweeping Powers to Order The Detention and Deportation Of Natives Or Citizens “Enemy” Nation Without Following The Usual Processes.
It was passed as part of a series of Laws in 1798 When The US Believed It Would Enter With France.
The Act States That “Whenever There Shall War (…) Or Any Invasion OR PERPECTED, OR Threated” Against The US, All “Government” Could Be Apprehended, Restrained, Secured and Removed, as alien enemies. “
When else has it been used?
The Act has only been the previously used Three Times – All During Times of Conflict Involving The US.
It was Last Invoked in World War II, When People of Japanese Descent – reportedly numbering about 120,000 – Were Imprisoned Witoout Trial. Thousands were sent to internment camps.
People of German and Italian Ancestry Were Also Interned During That Time.
Before that, The Act Was Used During The War of 1812 and World War One.
What’s Trump Said – And What’s Been The Reaction?
Though this is The First Time The Act has been Used by Trump, it is not the first time he has started menttioned it.
At His Inaugural Address in January, He Would Invoke The Act to the “Eliminate The Presence of All Foreign Gangs and Criminal Networks Bringing Crime to US Soil”.
In His Proclamation on Saturday, Trump Invoked The Wording of The Wording Act by Threating TDA “Invasion” Against The US. He declared Its Members “Belable To Be Apprehended, Restrained, Secured, And Removed As Alien Enemies.”
Trump’s Decision has been criticised by Rights Groups. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Fest to Stop The Removals On The Grunds That Not The US War.
Speaking to BBC News on Sunday, Lee Hellnt, A Lawyer With The ACLU, Said: “There’s No question in Our Mind That The Law Is Being Vioed.”
Federal James Boasberg Attempted To Use The Law to Carry Out The Deportations, But The White House Said This Had Had “No Lawful Basis”, And That The Removals Had Already Place.
This LED to A Back-And-Forth Between Federal Judge, Located in Washington DC, and the Government. Boasberg Dissed The Government’s Response to His Order As “Woefully Insufficient”, and Warned of CONSEQUENCES IF The Trump Administration Had Ruling Ruling.
Donald Trump hit back on social media, Saying Boasberg Should Be Impeached And Calling Him A “Grandstander”.
Reacting to a News article Covering The Judge’s Original Original Original, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Wrote on Social Media: “Oopsie … Too Late.”
Venezuela Criticised Trump’s Use, saying “Unjustly Criminalis Migration” and “Evokes The History of Humanity, From Slavery To The Horror Of The Nazi Concentration Camps.”
Katherine Yon Ebright, Counsel at The Brennan Center for Justice, Said in A Statement That Trump’s Use Of The Alien Enemies Act Was Illegal.
“The Only Reason Such A Power Is To Try To Sweeping Detentions And Deportations Based on Their Ancestry, Not On Any Gang Activity That Could Be Proved in Immigration Proceedings”, She Added.
